Comments on: Shel Silverstein’s Unlikely Rise to Kid Lit Superstardom

By: carolina

carolina — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:17:00 +0000

I was lucky to have had elementary school teachers who introduced me to lots of great books for kids that I still remember today, many of which were written by Shel Silverstein. I still have my really worn out copy of where the sidewalk ends! If I had to pick one, though, it would be the Giving Tree (which features on my list of the top 5 kids books: http://www.best5everything.com/best5ListPages/childrensbooks48645.php). The message is a great one, albeit sad, for adults and kids to discover and discuss together!

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:05:20 +0000

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too was life changing for me. That poem is the reason I write poetry (granted mine is much different. But that poem made me appareciate poetry for the first time.)

By: T.

T. — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 07:06:58 +0000

Yes in the beginning it was heartwarming but in the end I felt the boy greatly mistreated the tree…yet somehow it’s still a classic book for me haha.

By: Elly Vortex

Elly Vortex — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:04:42 +0000

Drat, I meant to say “giving giving giving until SHE was nothing but a stump.”

By: Elly Vortex

Elly Vortex — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:03:46 +0000

I still have the poem “Sick” memorized…

I cannot go to school today!
said little Peggy Ann Mackay.
I have the measles and the mumps,
a gash a rash and purple bumps…

and so on.

I did not like the Giving Tree. As a child I felt bad for the poor tree, giving giving giving until he was nothing but a stump. All for that the selfish little boy who took parts of her away. I know that it’s a story about unconditional love, but I hated how the boy treated the tree.

By: jennifer joy

jennifer joy — Sun, 09 May 2010 04:45:51 +0000

I was named after a shel silverstein poem actually

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:01:46 +0000

The nose picking one… made one of my college profs shake his head in, I don’t know, maybe stunned amazement when I recited it:

Inside everybody’s nose there lives a sharp-toothed snail, and if you stick your finger in it may bite off your nail.
Stick it further up on in it may just take your ring off.
Stick it all they way in and it’ll take the whole darn thing off.

My sister and I also loved the polarybear one so reading that just now flooded me with delightful memories!

Thanks for the great article and great posts.

P.S. (What would Shel do with this ReCaptcha “Rubble Innovate”?)

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:07:24 +0000

Makes me want to go back and re-read my well worn copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic.

My favorites:

Mrs. McTwitter was the baby-sitter.
I think she’s a little bit crazy.
She thinks a baby-sitter’s supposed.
To sit upon the baby.

Inside everybodyâ€™s nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it farther up inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.

By: Kari

Kari — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:28:00 +0000

I read my nephew The Giving Tree it is a wonderful story and sad it made me cry.

By: clint

clint — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:47:47 +0000

So who ARE these people who object so strongly? It’s clear from all these comments here, and in other places where the subject comes up, that “everybody” thinks Silverstein is amazing and that kids benefit from not having everything sanitized for their protection.

So where are the nutters? Do stupid people shy away from this site, and that’s why nobody’s commented that they think his poetry is bad for ya?

There has to be *somebody* clucking their thick tongue and shaking their empty head as they read this, thinking how they’d never let their kids read anything by an anti-Christian cannibal sex fiend.

Come on, screwheads! Explain yourselves!