Beccy's Reviews > The Selfish Giant

Utterly beautiful.

On the surface a traditional fairy tale, though Wilde wrote it as a religious parable, however as a five ar six year old it wasn't a subtext I was aware of.

The plot centres around a giant who puts a wall around his beautiful garden to stop children playing in it, and in doing so, stops Spring from entering as well as them. One day the children find a cranny though which to kreep back into the garden and duly Spring returns and the garden becomes a paradise once more. As the giant goes into his garden to see the transformation up close the children shy away from him with the exception of one boy, stranded at the bottom of a tree. The giat lifts him up into it, and the child kisses his cheek. At that moment the Giant's selfishness melts as the ice in his garden has done and he sets about knocking down the wall. Every day the children come to play and the proper order of the seasons returns, but the giant never sees he child he lifted into the tree. Until one day, as a very old giant, the child apears before him with wounds on his hands. Horrified the giant wants revenge for the hurt caused to the boy, but the boy says;

"Nay! but these are the wounds of Love....You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise."

When the children return to the garden the next day the giant is found dead, under the tree with blossom on him.

This story is perfect for Foundation and Key Stage one children, and this edition in particular, as the illustrations are fantsatic. The fact that death features so obviously at the end might mean it needs be approached with a sense of caution, but the approach it takes is one of gentleness and love, so might also be a good tool to discuss issues of families and bereavement with smaller children.