Childhood Book: The Giving Tree. By: Shel Silverstein

The opening line of this story is: Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy.

Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy. The little tree lived deep in the forest near a little village where the boy lived. Unlike the other little trees, she secretly loved a human and often did childish things to get the little boy’s attention. The tree loved the little boy’s gray eyes and the way the little boy’s light blond hair always seems to be messy and covered in mud. She loved how the little boy was always happy and smiling whenever he found something interesting to play with whenever he looks around the forest floor. The little tree wished she could be with the little boy and play with him because he was always enjoying himself. But all the little tree could do was rustle her leafs when the boy was in the other direction or when the boy was close she would drop a couple of her leafs on top of the boy. She would watch the little boy brush the leaf away and stare at her for a couple of minutes and smile. But the days after that the little boy stopped turning towards her direction and no matter what the little tree did, the boy did not look. She continued her efforts year after year until one day the boy stopped coming. The tree wanted to get up from her spot and find the little boy but she was rooted to the ground and instead she prayed that the boy would come back or let her become a human to find the little boy. The boy never came back and years went by without a single trace of him. The tree stopped praying. It was the usual year for the tree, Fall would come and change the color of her leafs, Winter was always mean to her and take away all her leafs, while Spring would encourage and mend her leafs. The tree was no longer the hopeful and playful tree she once was and stood in the hot summer sun thinking about rain. While thinking, the tree did not notice that a human had taken shelter in her shades. She was startled when something had leaned against her trunk and surprised to find that it was a human sleeping on her trunk. The tree did not know what to do. Should she wait for the human to wake up or do something to wake the human. She stood there contemplating which choice she should choose and decided to just leave the human alone. She just wanted to observe the human because she knew that she would not see another human ever again and if the human woke up, she would be alone again. It was when the sun was red, in the sky, when the human had awakened from his slumber and was preparing to leave. She saw for the first time the color of the human's eyes. Gray eyes, the tree thought. She looked at the boy's hair and it was a more defined dark blond color and a bit more cleaned compare to the little boy years ago.

'It's him' the tree thought.

She was not excited but she was not disappointed either...she was just shocked. She felt like she should be happy but at the same time she was a little angry. After so many years the boy had changed in appearance and she was not able to see the change throughout those years. Her thought was interrupted when the human searched the items he brought along with him and pulled out a small bell and hung it by the little branches above his head.

“I’ll come back tomorrow.” The human said leaving the tree behind

The tree was not sure if the human would really come the next day or he meant a couple more years until he returns. The tree fell asleep and decided to wait for the next day. The human did come as promised and he brought a little creature with him. The tree was happy to see the human but she was curious what and who his companion was since it was following him around.

“Buster, this is the tree that I told you about, don’t you think she pretty?”

His little companion gave a loud response to the human’s words and the tree was startled by the noise. Why was the little creature responding so loudly to the human’s words. The human turned towards the tree and introduced the creature to her.

“Hey, this is my dog, Buster, he is my special friend and I wanted to show you to him.”

She watched as the dog walked around her trunk and circled around on one part of the ground and slept. The human laughed calling the dog a silly creature. The human went over to Buster and kissed the dog on the head. He looked up at the tree and smiled. He whispered something to her. She did not hear what he said and wished she could talk to tell him to repeat it again but she had no mouth and was kept silent. The human woke the little creature and hung another bell onto one of her smaller branches. Then the human left the tree again. After that it seemed that every day was the same routine to the human and the tree. He would come back to her bringing along his little companion or sometimes without him but always leaving a small bell on one of her branches without fail. She was content with the presence of the human. She looked forward to every day and grew to love the human once again. The tree wanted to show the human that she loved him but she could not and it frustrated her. She could only watch as the human smiled at her and visit her. The summer was over and even though she could not tell the human she loved him, she was happy that things were the same way it used to be.