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
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
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