Laura's review
The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
How can you say such things about the same man who wrote "A Boy Named Sue," "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love the Most," and "I Was Stoned And I Missed It"? Well, I guess you can say such things, but how much of your review is colored by your feelings about Granny, and how much because the book actually sucked?
Well, my grandmother is dead these 20 years. I read the book pretty recently, and it still sucks. So there you have it.
Considering I have read hundreds of comments about the evils of this book on many other sites, I don't think it's just you.
I went to a very conserative Christian (not Catholic) elementary school and this book was pushed and pushed on us. Even at that young age, I must have realized something was wrong with it because I appear to have completely blocked out all memory of actually reading it. It's cropped up many times lately so I think I might just have to check it out.
this book...is horrible. hate it. hate.
My grandmothers were the kindest ladies who ever lived, and I still thought this book was a piece of crap. Shel Silverstein wrote some fantastic stuff, but this wasn't remotely close.
Laura's review
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Laura's review
rating:
bookshelves:
children
recommended for: not terribly bright hippies
Easily the most vile children's book ever written, for reasons eloquently stated by about a zillion other posters here. I remember my grandmother, whom I disliked (yeah, some kids don't like their grandparents, it's true) used to push this book on me as terribly DEEP and BEAUTIFUL and something I should really THINK ABOUT. And you wonder why I didn't like my grandmother? (My mother thought it was a piece of shit, too.) Anyway, it's a vomitous book, always has been, and I'm glad there are other people who think that it is. When I was a kid, it was held up as the ne plus ultra of depth and beauty in children's literature. God help us if that's true, but luckily it isn't. If you want a proper story about self-sacrifice that won't make you want to go out and take a poleax to every tree within a five-mile radius, try THE FIRE CAT.
How can you say such things about the same man who wrote "A Boy Named Sue," "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love the Most," and "I Was Stoned And I Missed It"? Well, I guess you can say such things, but how much of your review is colored by your feelings about Granny, and how much because the book actually sucked?
Well, my grandmother is dead these 20 years. I read the book pretty recently, and it still sucks. So there you have it.
Considering I have read hundreds of comments about the evils of this book on many other sites, I don't think it's just you.
I went to a very conserative Christian (not Catholic) elementary school and this book was pushed and pushed on us. Even at that young age, I must have realized something was wrong with it because I appear to have completely blocked out all memory of actually reading it. It's cropped up many times lately so I think I might just have to check it out.
this book...is horrible. hate it. hate.
My grandmothers were the kindest ladies who ever lived, and I still thought this book was a piece of crap. Shel Silverstein wrote some fantastic stuff, but this wasn't remotely close.