The More You Give
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A modern-day response to The Giving Tree, this lyrical picturebook shows how a family passes down love from generation to generation, leaving a legacy of growing both trees and community.
Once there was a wide-open field, and a boy who loved his grandmother,
who loved him back.
The boy’s grandmother gives him many gifts, like hugs, and Sunday morning pancakes, and acorns with wild and woolly caps. And all her wisdom about how things grow. As the boy becomes a father, he gives his daughter bedtime stories his grandmother told him, and piggyback rides. He gives her acorns, and the wisdom he learned about how things grow. His daughter continues the chain, then passing down gifts of her own. Here is a picture book about the legacy of love that comes when we nurture living things—be they people or trees.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Several generations grow up—and out—in this philosophically generous reboot of The Giving Tree. In the story's first spread, a boy and his grandmother appear as tiny figures crossing an empty field, portrayed from afar by Sanna (Move, Mr Mountain!) in an image that resonates with themes of manifold maturation that's better perceived from a distance. In atmospheric snapshots of successive adult-child relationships across generations, the creators trace legacies of love: a grandmother gives her grandson both acorns ("tiny and shy, with wild and woolly caps") and "the gift of patience," and her counsel later helps the boy endure her death. The oak tree they plant grows along with him, and when he has a child of his own, they plant another. "Love," he tells her, "even when given to the smallest of things, can... grow bigger than she could ever imagine." A third generation carries the planting further as the field turns into a well-loved forest. Long horizons and magnificent trees in saturated shades give depth to flat, crisp-edged figures of various skin tones, while Campbell's (Something Good) language exemplifies deep trust and perfect safety—and the importance of cultivating care both interpersonally and with the natural world. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. Illustrator's agent: Andrea Morrison, Writers House.
