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evalynnfarkashasanbasri 's review for:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
1.0

I love the poetry of Shel Silverstein to this day, but I still hate this book. I can still recall it being read to me as a child in the school library, and despising the message it gave as a young girl, watching women/the tree give everything with no boundaries to a boy who grows into a man who arguably did not appreciate the tree as he ought. And then what does he do? He sits on her, after degrading her into a stump. Absurd! The awful feeling it gave me then still creeps up on me sometimes when I see the book celebrated, and while many may find me daft for having such strong feelings about a picture book, I respect the disdain my younger self instinctively harbored for this book. The only comforting thing as an adult, is knowing that trees can rebirth themselves in myriads of ways.