Presenting Author - Shel Silverstein

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Name of the author: Shel Silverstein
Main genre: Poetry, Children's Books, Classics, Fiction, Picture Books
Main audience: everyone
Main books: A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, The Giving Tree, A Giraffe and a Half (and more)
Short summary of the author: Shel Silverstein had a remarkable eloquence and great artistic talent. He was able to write about anything and everything and somehow captivate the imagination of readers. He was extremely funny -- and with his talents, he would help bring a sense of balance to sometimes not-funny topics. He could also write so that a person could, if they so chose, be enabled to see things more easily from other than their usual perspective.
Goodreads has this for Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein was the author-artist of many beloved books of prose and poetry. He was a cartoonist, playwright, poet, performer, recording artist, and Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated songwriter.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Title of the book: Where the Sidewalk Ends
Author: Shel Silverstein
Series: no
Genres: poetry, childrens, classic, fiction
Short summary of the story: This is a collection of rather awesome poems and drawings. The author has illustrated his poems with drawings and sometimes the drawings incorporate the poem (such as the poem which is written on the neck of a giraffe). He has no limit to the subjects he will address, whether it be food or dogma or just having fun. The illustrations sometimes just mirror the poem and sometimes they add a conclusive aspect to the finality of the poem.

image shows a poem, with title and words, picture of a guy with a pencil and a partially (mostly) erased person
MAGICAL ERASER
She wouldn't believe
This pencil has
A magical eraser.
She said I was a silly moo,
She said I was a liar too,
She dared me to prove that it was true,
And so what could I do--
I erased her!

Something of which I was completely unaware is that there is a song, The Unicorn Song, sung by The Irish Rovers, and they got the words from his poem, The Unicorn! I was reading and found myself humming it and then the light bulb went on!

Points of which to be aware: If you don't like to laugh, if you don't like poetry, if you don't like drawings which sometimes are just too funny and true ... don't read this book!

Goodreads has this to say about Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends turns forty! Celebrate with this anniversary edition that features an eye-catching commemorative red sticker. This classic poetry collection, which is both outrageously funny and profound, has been the most beloved of Shel Silverstein's poetry books for generations.

Where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. There you'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.

Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings is one of Parent & Child magazine's 100 Greatest Books for Kids. School Library Journal said, "Silverstein has an excellent sense of rhythm and rhyme and a good ear for alliteration and assonance that make these poems a pleasure to read aloud."

Shel Silverstein's incomparable career as a children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. In 1964, Shel's creativity continued to flourish as four more books were published in the same year—Don't Bump the Glump!, A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, and the beloved classic The Giving Tree. Later he continued to build his remarkable body of work with Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, Every Thing On It, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and Runny Babbit.

[Iverian Gnash]

Title: The Giving Tree, The Missing Piece, A Light in the Attic
Author: Shel Silverstein
Genres: poetry
Summary of story:
All three of these books were amazing. The first two, are just little kids poem books, but hey, I grew up hearing The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece all the time. When I think of the poetry genre, my mind immediately goes to these books. A Light in the Attic is a collection of Shel Silverstein's poems. There are other ones like A Light in the Attic that he wrote as well and when I was young I had all of them stacked on my dresser. I remember reading them bit by bit each night and loving each one. Most of his poems were hysterical. For instance, here is one,
"How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes:

If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful, boring chore)

If you have to dry the dishes
('Stead of going to the store)

If you have to dry the dishes
And you drop one on the floor —
Maybe they won't let you
Dry the dishes anymore."

Most of his poems came with little pictures that would illustrate what the poem was about. I loved these books. Some other ones that I had were "Where the Sidewalk Ends" "Falling Up" and "Everything on It". These were all similar to each other, a collection of poems, each accompanied by a picture. They were super cute and funny