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

By: Samantha

Samantha — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:31:00 +0000

I love Shel Silverstein. I used to enjoy reading poems when I was a kid. I’ve lost the books since then but I made sure to get Sidewalk on my iPod. It’s even his voice reading it.

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:07:00 +0000

I’ve been a fan for years. I have a well-worn copy of “Different Dances” right here on display on my desk. It’s the “dirty book” but when you actually read it, it’s not dirty, it’s social commentary (at it’s best). My Mom is famous at her church for doing The Giving Tree as a felt board story for not just the kids, but for the adults, too. My youngest was especially fond of “The Missing Piece” and “The Missing Piece Meets the Big O”. What a wonderful mind that man had.

By: WarTiger

WarTiger — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:18:00 +0000

There’s too many kids in this tub.
There’s too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind, that I’m sure wasn’t mine.
There’s too many kids in this tub.

Memorized in 3rd grade or so….not bad for fifteen years later! Shel Silverstein is my fave and I give The Giving Tree or Sidewalk as baby gifts as much as i can. He definitely helped inspire my great love of literature of all styles.

By: Your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian

Your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:05:08 +0000

What’s particularly interesting is that Shel Silverstein is the children’s illustrator that almost wasn’t…
Shel Silverstein initially did not think his own illustrations to be best for (his then upcoming book) “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, and asked the admirable Ursula Nordstrom to ask Maurice Sendak if he would do the illustrations. Fortunately for Sendak, Silverstein, and all of us, Sendak had already decided only to do his own work (having won the Caldecott a few years prior for “Where the Wild Things Are”) and Silverstein ultimately chose to illustrate the book himself.

By: gus

gus — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:33:54 +0000

Not the least of Uncle Shelbie’s talents are his songs. My favorite is “Freaking At The Freakers Ball”. This was also the title of an album he recorded with Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show, before they went disco.

By: Gilbert

Gilbert — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:19:12 +0000

My favorite Shel Silverstein poem was the one about the yippiyuk. The thought of something latching on to you and never letting go terrified me. when I was in elementary school our librarian would play audio tapes of his poems and that one would always stick in my mind. “the yippiyuck would not let go” classic!!

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:01:41 +0000

I love his Sidewalk and Attic books. There were in my elementary school library. I always wondered why the index included a poem called “They’ve put a brazziere on the camel”, but when I turned to those pages they were stuck together. That must have been the librarian’s compromise with the more uptight parents.

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:43:33 +0000

My sister and I were tremendous Shel Silverstein fans, and still are. She’ll often call me during the day while I’m slaving at my laptop and I’ll say, “I’d rather play hurk…..”

Incredible stuff. No contest, no competition!

By: Dan Costello

Dan Costello — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:16:50 +0000

Shel Silverstein inspires me to this day. As a lyricist, as a songwriter, as a self-confident artist, he didn’t care what people thought, he onlyfocused on making his art. Thank heavens he did, I don’t know what I would be doing if I never got to read “I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor….”

By: CropTillDawn

CropTillDawn — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:29:10 +0000

I had never heard of him growing up. My son who is 12 now discovered his books. We have quite a few of them. Of course he also enjoys Monty Python, Calvin & Hobbs, and Bloom County as well.