Image Credit: Everett CollectionThe second posthumous collection of poetry and illustrations by beloved children’s author Shel Silverstein will be released next year by HarperCollins, Publisher’s Weekly reports. The currently untitled volume will include 120-130 previously unpublished works, which are being curated by the author’s longtime editor, Antonio Markiet. There is no shortage of material from Silverstein, who died in 1999 at the age of 67. His first posthumous collection, Runny Babbit, was published by HarperCollins in 2005.
Silverstein, whose body of work includes Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up, depicted the innocence of youth in a unique and engaging way. He has remained immensely popular with children and adults due to his creative and eccentric observations about life, typically geared toward the kid in all of us.
My favorite poem has always been “Sick,” which related the elaborate lie one little girl tells her parents to avoid going to school. “I cannot go to school today, said Little Peggy Ann McKay,” she proclaims, only to discover that it is actually the weekend. “What’s that you say? You say today is…Saturday? G’bye, I’m going out to play!” Silverstein’s miniature hypochondriac captures the imagination we all had — and may still have — especially when it comes to those highly coveted chances to remain home, dodging any and all responsibilities (adults: substitute work for school?). Writing about issues of the kid world made Silverstein not only entertaining, but extremely relevant.
What about you ShelfLifers? What’s your favorite Shel Silverstein poem? Do you plan on purchasing his new collection?
“Sick” is also my favorite, as well as “The Crocodile Dentist”. We used to listen to tapes of Shel performing his poems on long car trips. Brings back lots of childhood memories.
Sick is totally my fav.
Shell Turtlestein! Modern family.. sorry. had to.
“Sick” is awesome and so is “Listen To The Musn’ts”. They are all classics!
I was going to say “Sick”, but now I have to pick another one, and it’s so hard. “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out”. “Smart”. “The Little Boy and the Old Man”. So many good ones…
‘There’s too many kids in this tub. There’s too many elbows to scrub. I just washed a behind, I’m sure wasn’t mine. There’s too many kids in this tub!’
Gotta love it. I still laugh after all these years.
When I was a kid, I loved…LOVED The Giving Tree. And now that I’m a father, it’s one of my son’s favorite books for me to read him as well. He’s too young to really understand it…and I probably was too when my mom was reading it to me. But something in it speaks to kids and adults alike.
Funny, I like the book too, but my wife HATES the book to the point that she cries after reading it because she sees the boy as selfish.
I have two sons vastly and monumentally different. The Giving Tree exemplifies that point: My older boy wept over how selfish the boy is, and the younger one wasnt moved in the least…
The Giving Tree moves me to tears to this day…By far my favorite!
Mrs. McTwitter, the babysitter. I think she’s a little bit crazy. She thinks the babysitters supposed to sit upon the baby!
The saddest thing I ever did see, was a woodpecker pecking on a plastic tree. He looked at me as if to say “friend, things aren’t as sweet as they used to be.”
STUPID PENCIL MAKER
“Some dummy built this pencil wrong,
The eraser’s down here where the point belongs,
And the point’s at the top-that’s no good to me,
It’s amazing how stupid some people can be.”
I am writing these poems
From inside a lion,
And it’s rather dark in here.
So please excuse the handwriting
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoon by the lion’s cage
I’m afraid I got too near.
And I’m writing these lines
From inside a lion,
And it’s rather dark in here.
Loved this one. I also think that there is something to be said for the poem of Where the Sidewalk Ends (it’s not just an awesome book title).
My ultimate favorite!! I just loved the images. My favorite book is “The Giving Tree”
“Inside everybody’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.”
Also loved Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout!
My Favorite since I was litte:
My beard grows to my toes,
I never wears no clothes,
I wraps my hair
Around my bare,
And down the road I goes.
“The Perfect High”
There’s a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire–
He likes it ’cause it’s cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He’s nibbling the noodles,
He’s munching the rice,
He’s slurping the soda,
He’s licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he’s in there–
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.
That’s one of my faves, too. “Fridgitydaire” – simple and genius.
Winner. End of discussion!
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out and Hungry Mungry are by far the two I love the most and remember fondly.
Absolutely Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout. So much fun!
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
without a doubt
is the one
I couldn’t live without.
However, with my sons,
I happen to see,
from all their joy and glee,
that their fav
is Hungry Mungry.
Let’s not forget that Shel also wrote the songs “The Unicorn” and “A Boy Named Sue”, “Cover Of The Rolling Stone” and “One’s On The Way”. Who else could have written hits for Dr. Hook and Loretta Lynn?
ANNND The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.
Or Johnny Cash?
Don’t forget “Sylvia’s Mother”
My favorite is and forever will be:
“If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, 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!”
Sigh. Love it.
my absolute favorite too!!
Listen to Mustn’ts, child, listen to the Don’ts.
Listen to the Shouldn’ts, the Impossibles, the Won’ts.
Listen to the Never Haves, then listen close to me.
Anything can happen, child, Anything can be.
That’s my favorite too. Simple and beautiful.