The Selfish Giant

The Selfish Giant by Oscar WildeThis children's book is a beautifully told and illustrated story about a giant who has a lovely garden in which all of the children love to come and play. There are always butterflies, birds and all manner of wild life, lovely flowers and blossoms on the trees.The giant has been away for many years visiting a friend and when he returns and finds all of the children playing in his beautiful garden he turns them out and builds a wall around the garden. It is his garden and he intends to enjoy it alone.But strangely enough after a bit the flowers die, the birds stop singing and then stop coming, the butterflies no longer come and winter takes over the garden. The giant is puzzled and unhappy about this turn of events.Then one day the children find a chink in the fence and return to the garden. The giant looks out and is astonished to see a child in each tree and the trees blossoming again, hear the birds singing again and winter fading away. Once more the garden is a delightful and beautiful place. All except one corner. The giant notices that winter remains in one corner of the garden. At the bottom of the tree in that corner is a little boy who is trying so hard to get up into the tree but just isn't tall enough. So the giant picks the little boy up and places him within the branches of the tree and immediately spring has arrived in this corner of the garden as well.The giant is very happy, removes the garden wall and spends the remainder of his days watching the children play and playing with them in the garden. The giant watched the seasons change but was not sad about it for he knew that spring was just around the corner.One winter day he is quite surprised to look out and see that the corner of his garden had blossoms on the tree. He had aged considerably by this time and slowly plodded out to the corner of the garden. The tree was covered in glorious blossoms, the leaves were golden colored and silver fruit hung abundantly from its branches. But the best thing of all is that his little friend whom he had lifted into the tree many, many years ago was beneath the tree. The giant opened his arms to the child but then stopped in anger as he saw where the child had been horribly injured with a wound in each of his palms and each of his wee feet. The injuries were prints of nails. The little boy spoke to the giant, telling him not to be angry; that the wounds were wounds of love.The giant fell to his knees and asked the little boy who he was. The little boy spoke and said that a long time ago the giant had let him play in his garden and now he had come to take the giant to his garden which was called "Paradise".When the children came into the garden that afternoon they found the giant lying dead under the tree, covered with white blossoms and with a smile on his face.The artwork in this story is beyond lovely as is the story. I rated it 5* and highly recommend it to children young and old.

While a giant is away, children come and play in his wonderful garden. When the giant returns, however, he is selfish, and blocks off the garden from all the children. The flowers and trees miss the children, and fall into an eternal winter. When the children sneak in to play in the garden again, the giant sees how Spring comes again, and changes his mind. He allows all the children to play in his garden, and even helps one little boy climb a tree. However, the little boy never comes again and the children do not know who he is. One day, the giant sees the little boy and rushes out to greet him. Upon seeing that the boy is wounded, he is enraged, but the boy tells him that the wounds were made from love. The giant is in awe of the boy and asks who he is, and the boy tells him that as the selfish giant allowed him to play in the giant's paradise, the boy will allow the giant to play in his. The other children come to the garden to find that the giant - no longer selfish - has passed away and is covered in white blossoms.

Oscar Wilde flirted with Christianity, particularly Catholicism, off and on throughout his life, and many of his fairy tales for children reflect his interest. The Selfish Giant in particular is explicit with the connection: the little boy has wounds on the palms of his hands (stigmata), and even the language changes to reflect the more Biblical leanings, as when the giant asks, "Who art thou?". The overtly Christian message may turn off many people, but the story is well told in a distinctly fairy tale rhythm and language.

Most impressive are the paintings. Ritva Voutila chose to render the scenes on every page in oils, which is unusual for a children's book. However, the results are astounding. The style is classical, with a distinct feel of Hieronymus Bosch. Each painting is lavishly attentive: tiny people, meticulous in their detailing, lurk above stone arches and in the corners of rooftops. The scenes of the flowers blossoming in the garden are a sensation of color painted in rich blues and vibrant purples. Watercolors or acrylics could have never captured the lushness of hue that Voutila achieves on every page. Not surprisingly, the paintings took over a year to complete, but the talent shines on every page. At times, the paintings can feel dark; there is a distinct gloomy pall over them. However, for a child or adult who loves poring over paintings to capture the most tiny detail, Voutila's work is bound to amaze and capture their attention.

Oscar Wilde! Oscar Wilde is awesome, right? Not to mention decadent, unconventional...?
Well, you wouldn't guess it from this tale.

This is a saccharine, moralizing story with a bit of a priggish attitude. The Christian allegory could not be more blatant if this were a retelling of a Bible verse.

A selfish giant doesn't allow any of the children to play in his garden. Because of his attitude, the garden becomes a bleak place where spring never blooms. But he eventually learns to mend his ways, and reaps the rewards...

I didn't know Oscar Wilde wrote this children's story, so when I found this in my college library I was excited to read it! It is a great tale about two young children and a giant. I think it would be a great fairy tale to read aloud!

The Selfish Giant is a story about a giant who discovers two children playing in his garden. He then builds a wall around his garden to prevent them from playing. His garden remains in winter without the children. When he hears music outside of his window, he sees the children playing in his garden and winter has disappeared. He's overcome with joy, but when he notices a little boy who's trying to climb a tree he helps him onto the tree. I don't want to give more than that away as a way to intrigue others to read the story. I'd recommend this story for children to learn how being selfish prevents individuals from fully enjoying life.

This is the story of a giant who returns home to find children playing in his garden and he doesn't like it. The giant throws them out and puts up a big wall to keep them out. However when spring comes to the rest of the world it stays winter in the giants garden until the children find a way back in and spring comes once again. The giant this time lets the children stay and helps the smallest child up into the tree. That child however disappears and the giant watches for him everyday but he never reappears. When the giant is old the boy reappears but this time he is hurt and has holes in his hands and feet. He tells the giant he has come to take him away. This is a lovely story that can be enjoyed by all.

It’s always interesting to me when someone can take a classic and remake it to the point where current generations can find beauty within it. Honestly, it’s been a long time since I have taken the time to go through a book with my son. He’s 10 years old now and he reads long chapter books without the need for me to help him, so when Noteworthy Books asked me to review The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, Musical Adaptation by Dan Goeller, Illustrations by Chris Beatrice and Narration by Martin Jarvis, I jumped at the chance to not only spend time with my little guy, but also to read a good book and hear some beautiful music.I wasn’t disappointed.The Selfish Giant is a heartfelt story that addresses topics such as selfishness, kindness, forgiveness and redemption. I hadn’t heard the story before so I was somewhat shocked at the ending, which was of a Christian nature. It wasn’t a bad ending, just unexpected for me because I hadn’t heard the story before and wasn’t expecting it. The included cd is narrated with the resounding and pleasant voice of Martin Jarvis, who kept me and my son enchanted throughout the 30-minute narration of the book. As a parent, holding a book for that length of time isn’t a pleasant experience, so I caution you to snuggle up with your kid of any age and put a book under your arm. It’s as good an excuse as any to snuggle.The illustrations in the book are truly beautiful and thoughtfully done. You can almost feel them coming to life as the story is being read to you. My son couldn’t take his eyes off of them and I found myself looking through them for little bits and pieces of the story as well as unnoted commentary. In a book that accompanies a 30-minute cd, the illustrations must be interesting and aesthetically pleasing if you are going to look at a page for any length of time and these were both.My favorite part of the book was the music. I’m a music lover and I found the music to be perfectly matched to the tone of the book. A few times I found myself closing my eyes to just enjoy what I was hearing and allow myself to drift into the story. At the end of the story there is a 4 minute up-beat montage of children’s music that is just beautiful and my son couldn’t stop bobbing his head to it. I can think of no better compliment.In conclusion, the book was beautifully put together and definitely worth the time spent putting it together. This would make a wonderful bedtime book. What caught my attention, as well, is that the included cd would be wonderful for a long car ride with little ones. As a parent, getting kids to be quiet for 30 minutes on a long ride is a true blessing and with the beautiful music, excellent narration and amazing pictures, this would be a wonderful addition to any backseat package. Parents, this is a must have and not just for little ones. Like I said, mine is 10 and it held his attention for 30 minutes. Well done.

This science fiction book or fairy tale is actually a metaphor for a story about Jesus. The children play in a garden until a selfish giant forbids them to; by the end of the story the giant takes joy in the children and winter is never there for too long. Media: Acrylic paint