Good Books
"The World is FLAT! (And that is that) "
Ivy F. DeShield, contributing editor
The best invitation I ever received was from the late but still widely celebrated poet, children’s author, cartoonist, screenwriter and singer-songwriter, Sheldon “Shel” Silverstein (1930 - 1999). In his first collection of poems, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, published in 1974, Silverstein charmingly invites readers to rest by his fireside as he takes them on a wondrous journey of giants, gypsies, magical erasers, razor-tailed wrens, and flying festoons galore.
“INVITATION”
If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer....
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
Of all the books I loved as a child and the many works of poetry I read and studied as both a high school and college student, Silverstein’s debut collection still has my heart. Whenever I needed a brief or longer escape from doing my homework or cleaning my room, I would grab this book, find one of my special hiding places and curl up next to Silverstein’s hearth to enjoy his unadulterated and unmatched wit and absurdity, each rhyme always better than the last.
“ALICE”
She drank from a bottle called DRINK ME
And up she grew so tall,
She ate from a plate called TASTE ME
And down she shrank so small.
And so she changed, while other folks
Never tried nothin’ at all.
“INVENTION”
I’ve done it, I’ve done it!
Guess what I’ve done!
Invented a light that plugs into the sun.
The sun is bright enough,
The bulb is strong enough,
But oh, there’s only one thing wrong...
The cord ain’t long enough.
Silverstein’s genius flies right off the charts with his remarkable pen and ink drawings that will have both you and your child in stitches as you witness tiny and patient Melinda Mae sitting at her dinner table trying to consume an impossibly huge whale that has spilled off the table from one page onto another and after eighty-nine years, she....well, I’ll let you discover that for yourself! Or little Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout running for dear life across the page as an actual mountain of garbage of “coffee grounds, potato peelings, brown bananas, rotten peas, Chunks of sour cottage cheese” (that she would not take out) threatens to topple over onto her. Here, I have to admit that I would recite this rhyme repeatedly to get through my most-hated chores, and it always worked like a charm (still does)!
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is where adventure and true living begins in the wacky, yet totally infectious, world of Shel Silverstein that will capture your child’s heart, encourage their expression and challenge their imagination, as it did mine so long ago. I don’t know how or why, but Silverstein was a rare adult who simply understood that childhood is a treasure, a gift, where “Anything can happen... [and] Anything can be”. How very true. As always, my loves, enjoy the read!