Library Leaders

The Giving Tree

By: Shel Silverstein

This is a story about a little boy and a tree. In the beginning the boy and the tree spent every day together. The boy picked up her leaves to make crowns, climbed up her trunk and swung from her branches. They’d spend hours playing hide and seek until the boy got tired and he would rest under her shade.

Over time as the boy grew older, he would leave the tree for long periods of time. The boy would only come back to the tree in the times of his life when he wanted something. During these times the tree would always give the boy what she could. This went on until the little boy was an old man. On his last visit all that was left for her to give was her stump. The boy who had become this old man needed somewhere to sit and rest. The tree who was now just an old stump sat up straight to offer the last thing she had to give.

I believe the moral of this story is giving everything that you can to make someone else’s life better, but we should also see a friend not just when you want something but because we love them as well. Friendship and love are about giving and taking.

By Bailey and Logan