But true intellectual integrity requires us to engage with the story, not cover up its questions with silly moralism. If you find the original Giving Tree tale upsetting, that’s a perfectly acceptable reaction. Perhaps it could also be seen as a metaphor for the true self-sacrifice it takes to be a parent, though Payne’s rewrite, if he read the original as this kind of metaphor, still misses the point, as there’s a distinction between his preachy screed and true tough love. I personally always enjoyed The Giving Tree, finding it a helpful reflection on friendship and sacrifice. Calling The Giving Tree “problematic” because it doesn’t explicitly spell out some moral you want it to have and changing its ending to fit your worldview ruins its literary merit and robs readers of the opportunity to learn from and discuss the story. His books and poems moved readers because of their oddness, lyricism, and emotion. Silverstein was an internationally acclaimed author. But this blatant dismissal of a child’s intelligence is shameful. Well, look here, Boy, I love you like family,Įxcuse me? Perhaps this is just par for the course in our current climate, where books such as Antiracist Baby fly off the shelves. “Look, I was fine with giving you the applesįirst it’s the apples, then the branches, then

Payne, we now have a didactic, discussion-squashing diatribe that parents can print and paste into their own copies of the original story. Maybe the author was just being funny, but many people, such as LitHub’s Emily Temple, are taking him seriously. Playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne decided the ending of Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree was just too problematic for kids, so he rewrote it. (Alice Ochs/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

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