Episode 2 of “Little Voices, Big Ideas,” makes the case for discussing the big ideas found in the book that everyone loves to love--or loves to hate--Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree, Abbott says, reflects a worldview that nature is here for the taking, and that it’s separate from humans, not deeply interconnected. “This point of view has gotten us to this ...

It was also his personal “giving” project to give decorated trees to patients spending the holidays away from home. Soon it became a Lester Park Elementary tradition to continue that gift-giving.

BRADENTON -- Parents working two or three jobs to pay the bills and worried about the Christmas season, will get a little lift from the Manatee County School District and some of its elves.

Again, pretty obvious. So they go on to make the critique that "The Giving Tree" normalizes parental self-sacrifice in an unhealthy and destructive way — but then they give the book a hall pass ...