You probably all know the story of “The Giving Tree.”

It’s the perfect book to give a young child, and Shel Silverstein has woven a great many lessons into that one slim volume. According to Barnes and Noble, Silverstein intended to point out a few things that we humans could learn.

• Don’t keep score: The Giving Tree teaches it so well. She gives and gives and gives, never expecting anything in return.

• Go barefoot: The boy in the story goes barefoot until he succumbs to the temptations of the material world.

• You can’t leave your problems behind: The saddest thing in the book is when the boy asks for the whole trunk of the tree so he will be able to get far out to sea to escape his problems. The lesson here is a good one: Don’t fight the waves in a desperate vessel. Let them crash over you before you destroy what you hold most dear. Remember, giving in isn’t giving up.

• Just cool it: We are so busy rushing around that sometimes we miss the target. Sit down, be still. Give yourself a little thinking space.

• Focus on what you need, rather than what you want: To quote a Finnish proverb, “Happiness is a place between too little and too much.” Unfortunately, the boy learns this truth the hard way. After striving for too much of what he wants, he’s left with too little of what he needs.

• Just be there: Sometimes the best thing we can do for a loved one who’s sad is just to be there - silent and present, a constant. That’s what the tree does for the boy in the end. She’s just there for him, next to him, keeping him from feeling alone.

• Say please and thank you: If you notice, the boy never says “please” and “thank you” in the book. He takes, and the tree gives.

• Pictures tell a story, too: Silverstein’s illustrations are very simple but expressive. In “The Giving Tree,” he adds details to pictures that are fraught with emotion. The words speak, but so do the illustrations.

• Let love rule: You may be thinking the tree loved the boy, denied him nothing and ended up in a sorry state. But let’s turn that around. The boy acted without love. He acted out of fear instead. If he had acted out of love, he would have had apples, no shoes and houses not made of twigs.

Books can teach us all, young and old. This book also incorporates a history lesson of attitudes and gender roles in the 1960s, when this book was written.

They promote discussion and teach life lessons.

Please join our book club. We meet 3 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month. Everyone is welcome!

***

NEW BOOKS

Fiction: “Horse,” Geraldine Brooks; “Overkill,” Sandra Brown; “Reckoning,” Catherine Coulter; “Point Last Seen,” Christina Dodd; “Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Sacrifice,” Brian Freeman; “Grace Under Fire,” Julie Garwood; “The Family Remains,” Lisa Jewell; “The Big Dark Sky,” Dean Koontz; “The Best Is Yet To Come,” Debbie Macomber; “Shattered,” James Patterson and James O. Born; “The Retreat,” Sarah Pearse; “Portrait of an Unknown Woman,” Daniel Silva; “Rising Tiger,” Brad Thor; “The Second Husband,” Kate White; “Sugar and Salt,” Susan Wiggs; Black Dog,” Stuart Woods

Nonfiction: “Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom,” Sam Dogen; “More After the Break: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories,” Jen Maxfield; “Team America: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower and the World They Forged,” Robert L. O’Connell; “When Marilyn Met the Queen: Marilyn’s Life in England,” Michelle Morgan; “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” Michael Pack and Mark Paoletta; “Diana, William and Harry,” James Patterson and Chris Mooney; “Growing Up Getty: The Story of America’s Most Unconventional Dynasty,” James Reginato; “Putin,” Philip Short

Juvenile: “Open Wide and Say Arrrgh! (Bad Guys #15),” Aaron Blabey; “Polar Nights: Cast Into Darkness (Disney Frozen),” Jen Calonita and Mari Mancusi; “Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma,” Preeti Chhibber; “Minecraft: Zombies!” Nick Eliopulos; “The Secret Detective (Ali Cross),” James Patterson

Young adult: “Long Live the Pumpkin Queen (Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas),” Shea Ernshaw; “XOXO,” Axie Oh; “Who We Were in the Dark,” Jessica Taylor

Children’s picture books: “Is This Your Class Pet?,” Troy Cummings; “Two Dogs,” Ian Falconer; “Hurry, Little Tortoise, Time for School!” Carrie Finison; “Where There’s a Whisk, There’s a Way (Alice’s Wonderland Bakery),” Catherine Hapka; “Ballet Bruce (Mother Bruce World of Reading Level 1),” Ryan Higgins; “The Big Slide,” Daniel Kirk; “Little Bat Up All Day,” Brian Lies; “Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos,” Jonathan Stutzman; “Sunday Pancakes,” Maya Tatsukawa