I've been finding these explorations into rereading childhood books quite fun and brings back lots of memories. My next book cover in my style is Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree". It was a book that as a kid I loved cause it showed how selfless the tree was to take care of his boy. I remember one of our art projects in first grade was to draw ourselves with our tree and what we'd do for fun with our own tree. I remember doing a drawing with me on a swing with my tree. I loved art time, it was the only subject in school I loved (besides story and library time).
Now as an adult, although I still can see this message of selflessness, I almost am disappointed by how the boy only came to the tree when it wanted something from it. Might of not been intentional, but he only visits the tree when he needs something (more so the older he got), doesn't seem quite fair. If the boy had taken care of the tree back and visited often, I might feel different, but to me now, their relationship seemed one sided. Still this proves how simple as a story about a boy and a tree can be layered and interpreted in different ways based on your life experience and where you are in life. It evolves with who the reader is, which is impressive which makes me love this book still as a grownup. I'm interested to see how I view this book when I'm in my winter years. lol
