Challenged Book

Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Silverstein, Shel

Illustrator: Silverstein

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

Genre: Challenged Picture Book

Age Range: grades 2-5

Summary: This book is about a tree who loved a little boy.  The boy would go to the tree to eat her apples and play on the branches.  It always made the tree happy.  The boy got older and the tree went through changes, but it still gave to the boy.  

Response: I'm sure that I have read this book in the past.  I chose to read it because I remembered Shel Silverstein but I did not remember his stories.  I feel as though, you would have to be a very extreme feminist to challenge this book for sexist views.  I did not find anything wrong with the book while I was reading it and did not understand why exactly it is a challenged book.  It seemed to me like it was just about two unusual friends (the boy and the tree) and how the tree kept helping the boy by giving him apples.  The tree always was happy in return, when the boy would play on her branches.  I actually had to look up the reason this book is challenged.  Until I looked up the reason, I didn't understand why anyone would challenge it.  I think it is a good but silly book for children.