Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
We have a confession: when we were about seven-years old, we dreamt about being poets. The first book to inspire us in becoming major bookworms was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. Now, the latest edition released in 2004, is different from an edition we read in the 90s. Containing 12 new poems, we were filled with zest and nostalgia when we laid our eyes once again on Silverstein’s clean illustrations! One of our favorite poems from the new edition is “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!Silly, imaginative and non-conformist, Silverstein explicitly plays on a person’s imagination. Unorthodox and playful, we recommend you read this book to everyone you know! Where the Sidewalk Ends inspired us to write our first poems and practice our recitation skills in front of any adult, who took the risk of listening to our mumbo jumbo. Nevertheless, we were in fact quirky, ourselves, too. Drawing inspiration from Peggy Ann McKay, we attempted to skip school one day by insisting we were sick. Although we did not fool our mother, we memorized Peggy Ann’s fun rhymes to get us a free day:
“I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I’m going blind in my right eye.”
In case you haven’t noticed yet, this is not an educational or intellectual recommendation, this is a suggestion from the heart. This is one of our personal favorites. We have many memories with Silverstein’s prose, and we dearly wish your revisit one of the most fun poetry books in literature.