Get Talking: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Here are some questions for Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Just to get you thinking.
Which poem did you like the best? What did you like about it?

Were there any of the poems you didn't like? Why or why not?

Does all poetry have to rhyme?

What makes a poem good or bad?

Do you think the pictures added to the poetry? Do you think that the poems would be as funny without the illustrations?

Do you like any other poets? If so, who?

I hope you'll join us for the meeting on the 8th.  We'll be writing our own poetry and making valentines.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Gloria

Book Blurb: Where the Sidewalk Ends

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 . . .

Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. 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 at once outrageously funny and profound.  [He] shook the staid world of children's poetry in 1974 with the publication of this collection, and things haven't been the same since. More than four and a half million copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends have been sold, making it the bestselling children's poetry book ever. With this and his other poetry collections (A Light in the Attic and Falling Up), Silverstein reveals his genius for reaching kids with silly words and simple pen-and-ink drawings. What child can resist a poem called "Dancing Pants" or "The Dirtiest Man in the World"? Each of the 130 poems is funny in a different way, or touching ... or both. Some approach naughtiness or are a bit disgusting to squeamish grown-ups, but that's exactly what kids like best about Silverstein's work.
                                                  Taken from www.amazon.com



About the Author

Children's author Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago on September 25, 1932. Though he was best known for creating stories and poems for kids, he was a man of many talents. During the 1950s Mr. Silverstein was in the U.S. Army in Japan and Korea and drew cartoons for the publication Pacific Stars and Stripes. When he returned home from the service, he continued to draw cartoons for adult magazines and wrote plays and songs as well. Among his successes was Silverstein's tune, "A Boy Named Sue," written for country singer Johnny Cash in 1969 and "The Cover of the Rollin' Stone" which he wrote for singer Dr. Hook. He also composed music for the film, Postcards from the Edge for which he received a nomination for an Academy Award in Music

In the early 1960s, Silverstein's friend, children's book author-illustrator Tomi Ungerer, encouraged him to submit a story to children's editor Ursula Nordstrom at Harper & Row. That manuscript became his first children's book LAFCADIO: THE LION WHO SHOT BACK (1963). From there he went on to write a number of bestsellers which received numerous awards including  THE GIVING TREE (1964), WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS (1974), A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC (1981) and FALLING UP (1996).

Silverstein's flair for fun, tinged with a bit of naughtiness, makes his books enormously popular with kids. Altogether his titles have sold more than 18 million copies around the world and have been translated into 20 different languages.

Silverstein died at his Florida home on May 9, 1999. He will be greatly missed, though his zest for life and sense of humor live on in his books.

             Taken from http://www.kidsreads.com/features/0204-silverstein-author.asp