Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

 This has to be on my all time favourites list. I tear up every time I read it. It's a beautiful story about unconditional love, I'd say between a mother and a child. It's great to see stories like this in today's society where what you 'really need to worry about' is people cheating you, someone ripping you off, not getting your fair share, etc.. Society's so focused on the individual and selfishness is so celebrated that stories like this are refreshing to read and much needed in my opinion. To be honest I was surprised to see the negative reviews, but I guess that has to happen with widely read books, there's always a critic, and this is a good thing. But I would like to say in response that, yes the boy is taking from the tree and the tree never asks for anything, just offers everything, this is true. But, the reader takes on the perspective of the tree, the giver, and they experience this giving as something joyous, as an expression of love. When you love someone don't you want to do something to make them happy? And when someone gives you something you want or need, sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes not, isn't that a great feeling? To know that they care, sometimes enough to go out of their way, just for you? The boy never demands anything from the tree, the tree offers to make the boy happy, like a parent (or even a grandparent, anyone who cares really). Parents do everything for their children, sometimes this goes unnoticed, but they continue to do it because they love their children with all that they are. You can definitely pick out abuse if you look for it, but only if you look for it, not if you take the story as it is. It is a story about loving no matter what, and it kind of makes me sad that some people take that as abuse, especially when the boy did nothing offensive or abusive. He just took what was offered.
 
It's a beautiful story, and I think everyone should read it at least once in their lives.