IN THE NEWS: Man sleeping in dumpster gets picked up with trash. Read more HERE.I read to my kiddo every night for at least a half hour. It's one of the things I look forward to at night time.
So I went to the library with her school recommended reading list and saw that The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein was one of the books on it.
I remember The Giving Tree fondly from when I was in elementary school so I eagerly suggested to my kiddo that we check it out. She agreed.
I couldn't wait to read it to her, hoping she would love it as much I did. Well, I began reading it to her and I actually started to get a little choked up. My hubby wandered into the room as I was reading--thank goodness--because I literally started to cry and was blubbering and wailing so badly I couldn't read the last page!
Needless to say, my family stared at me like I was insane. (I probably am--a little) So when I finally blew my nose and was able to talk, I tried to explain to my little one why the story is so beautiful. "Don't you see?" I said. "The tree loved the boy so much she gave him everything she had."
Well, that did it. Because then my little one began to cry. (Not half the wailing I had, but enough tears to get a hug from me and her daddy)
I never cried over the book when I was young. But I think something struck me in this book differently now that I'm a mother. Basically the tree (like a mother) wants the boy to be happy and has an unconditional kind of love for him no matter how the boy responds. It also kind of struck me as sad that once the boy grew up he never seemed to be happy and always came back to the tree when he needed something. Very sad story, actually.
But that kind of went over my head as a child.
We're reading Stuart Little now. Much more upbeat and another favorite of mine.
Have you ever read The Giving Tree?
Or better yet, has a children's book ever made you cry?
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