Unconditional love is loving somebody no matter what

During our study of fiction and "how stories work," we enjoyed Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. I prefaced this read aloud by spilling my own memory bank of childhood bedtimes with my parents and my brother, piled up in my parents' bed, reading and rereading and rereading this book. We all knew how it went, but we all got teared up during it just the same. My brother, Matt, and I knew there was something special about the tree and the boy even though we were just little. And besides, Mom and sometimes even Dad would get choked up while they were reading it to us.

When I pulled out The Giving Tree for our second graders, their faces lit up and lots of "I love that book" whispers resonated around our circle. We read it just for the pure enjoyment of its' metaphorical beauty, not stopping to chat about books and details like we usually do. Even our most eager participators had eyes quietly glued to the book, bodies calm and still, sitting thoughtfully. When I closed the book, many, many hands shot up. They knew we were studying author's message/theme. They knew I had picked this book for just this reason. So I didn't even get to utter the question: "so what do you think the author's message is for us to apply to our lives?" because each hand raised already had their idea ready. The book is just that good.

Here's what our deep-thinking bunch came up with. Seriously, from the mouths of babes couldn't be more true for the way this conversation went down:
-I think the message is to love somebody, no matter what.
-I think the message is that you can love someone for your whole life
-I think the message is to be generous
-I think the message is to be giving, to give and give and give yourself

Oh, how awesome is this group?

Here's some pics of our students representing the central message of The Giving Tree in sketches and in words.