"Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy."

This story…one of my favorites…is beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, of selflessness touched with sadness. It follows a boy into adulthood through the many cycles of his life. This is a moving parable for readers that offers a glimpse of love without limits and in the end a realization that throughout his life, the boy wanted things from the tree, which it willingly gave, but in the end he needed something from the tree (which appeared to have nothing left to give)…he only needed a place to rest.