When Close Reading Meets Standardized Response Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree tells the story of a tree that progressively provides more and more of itself to a boy the tree “loves.” As the boy grows into a man he returns for the tree’s apples to sell, its branches to build a house, and ultimately the trunk itself for a boat, until the tree is a stump, which the “boy,” who is now an old man, finally returns to sit upon and rest.
