CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK IS COMING UP

     Next week we will be celebrating Children's Book Week...May 13 through 17...just as many libraries across the nation will be doing.
     And we need to remind you that Clifford the Big Red dog will be here for a "Meet and Greet" on Tuesday, May 14th, at 4 p.m.  In fact, there are children's events lined up for the whole month of May.
     If you do not know what Children's Book Week is, let me share this information with you.
     Children's Book Week is the annual celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading.  Established in 1919, Children's Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country.  Every year commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, and home - wherever young readers and books connect!
     Children's Book Week is administered by Every Child A Reader, a 501(c)(3) literacy organization dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of reading in children.  The Children's Book Council, the national non-profit trade association for children's book publishers, is an anchor sponsor.
     While watching the news at 6 p.m. the other day, I heard one of the news anchors talk about Children's Book Week.  He asked his co-anchors to name their favorite children's book, and one anchor said hers was Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree."
     I have to admit that is my favorite book also.  In fact, I've not only given it as gifts, I have received it as a gift twice.
     The book details the events occurring throughout the life of a young boy, and the friendship that he shares with a tree—with which he is apparently able to communicate.
     In his childhood, he enjoys climbing her branches and enjoying imaginative play with her; however, as he gradually passes into maturity his requests from the tree change.
     After entering adolescence, he requests to pick her apples with which to make profit, and after reaching adulthood he cuts off the tree's limbs to construct a house.
     Years later, he returns to the lonesome Giving Tree as an old man to cut her down and use her wood to craft a boat with which to sail away, reducing her to nothing more than a stump.
     However, eventually he returns to his friend, asking for a resting place, and peacefully drifts off to sleep on the tree stump, the only thing the tree has left to give.
     If you have a favorite children's book, let us know.  And if you're near a library this coming week, take time to stop by.  In fact, if you have a youngster, bring that child to the library.  You just might find lots of events going on to enjoy.  Better yet, you'll find lots of books that not only the child will enjoy, but you will too.
     And if you're in Moultrie, Georgia, be sure to check us out!!!
(Sources: Children's Book Week at www.bookweekonline.com and "The Giving Tree" at .wikipedia.org)

"The Giving Tree" Is Forty Years Old!

A friend and I went to a bookstore on Saturday and, as usual, I picked up one of my favorite free book review publications. Of course, in the midst of all those thousands of books in the bookstore, I forgot to look at it.
On Sunday, which was Mother's Day, I took time to prop up my feet on the coffee table, drink my glass of iced tea, and enjoy browsing through the book reviews. But I got a mild shock when I read about one particular book!
This year is the 40th anniversary of Shel Silverstein's classic story "The Giving Tree."
I sat on my couch and remembered the first time I'd ever read that book. I'd bought it to read to the youngest of my children, thinking since it was about a little boy, it would appeal to him. Little did I know how it would dig itself deep into my heart as a mother.
The story is a tale about the relationship between a young boy and a tree in a forest. They become best friends, and the tree always provides the boy with what he wants: vines to swing from, shade to sit under, apples to eat, etc. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, the tree lets the boy cut her down so he can build a boat. Then the boy leaves the tree, now a stump. Many years later, when he is an old man, he returns and the tree says it has nothing left to give him. But the boy replies that he only needs a quiet place to sit and rest as he awaits the end of his life. And the tree happily obliges, because once again she has the boy with her and she has something left to give him. It is a story about giving and giving, but happily.
Forty years old! It's hard to believe that story is THAT old! But when I think about it, it is really a timeless story.
If you haven't read The Giving Tree, you've missed one of the loveliest books ever written.
And if you don't know who Shel Silverstein was, he was an American poet, songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He died in 1999 at the age of 68. He also wrote The Missing Piece, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and many more stories.
As for music (and this surprised me), he wrote the music and lyrics for A Boy Named Sue that was performed by Johnny Cash, and One's on the Way, a hit for Loretta Lynn. He was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.