#4 in Picture books
The Giving Tree
- 57
- Pages
- about 1 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Giving Tree” takes minutes to read and far longer to shake off. What looks like a gentle picture book about a tree turns out to be a sad, honest story about giving, one that can catch the adult reading it aloud off guard. It works as a bedtime book and as a conversation starter, and some readers go on pressing it on others for years.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Giving Tree is an American children's picture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. First published in 1964 by Harper & Row, it has become one of Silverstein's best-known titles, and has been translated into numerous languages.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 1,080 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 88% of the weight and the score stays at 8.4 — the Picture books average of 8.3 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 106 | 10% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 16 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.5 | 958 | 89% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Giving Tree for?
The Giving Tree sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 57 pages — shorter than 88% of the ranked books in Picture books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Picture books — with scores between 8.1 and 8.3, closest to this book.
