As a kid I read tons of books. I loved to look at the pictures and draw the characters and be consumed by the worlds in which these fantastic authors created. One book I fell in love with as a 5 year old, was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein .

This book was magical to me as a child and it was wonderfully, yet simply illustrated. When I was a kid I wanted to make books just like that! If you’ve never read the book, I highly suggest it. It’s about the tale of a boy and his relationship with a tree and the tree gives the boy everything he has and the boy just wants more–for a span of like 80 years. It’s awesome, and so was Shel Silverstein.

Shel was a talented man and the father of a boy and girl. He was a poet, songwriter, playwrite–and an overall artistic genius. He actually wrote the song A Boy Named Sue performed by Johnny Cash. He was a magical man who gave the gift of his creative explosions to the world and to children through goofy songs and poem books.

Here is a video of Silverstein performing a song from another one of my favorite books, Where the Sidewalk Ends.

And another of him reading the Toy Eater from the book Falling Up.

As you can see from these videos Silverstein loves to get wacky, fun and play off of the goofiness, phobias and other strange things of children. But in many of his tales, there is a very profound message. Below I have compiled a list of my (and my children’s favorite books by Shel Silverstein).

1) The Giving Tree: An awesome book about a boy and a tree growing old over time and how they love one another.

2) Where the Sidewalk Ends 30th Anniversary Edition: Poems and Drawings
In this great collection of wacky story/poems, you’ll meet a boy who turns into a TV set and a girl who eats a whale. Also this where Silverstein’s famous son Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout will not take the garbage out comes from.

3) Don’t Bump the Glump!: And Other Fantasies
Like Where the Sidewalk Ends this is a collection of goofy poems but in full color and his only book illustrated in full color. It’s so fun! So come and join the Ginnit!

4) Falling Up
This was one of Silverstein’s last books. It’s much like The previous two a collection of goofiness that often gives kids the power to retaliate against the world…like one child character wields a “Remote-a-Dad” that will instantly control his father, and another dreams of his teachers becoming his students so that when they talk or laugh in class, he can “pinch ‘em ’til they cry.”

5)Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back
Lafcadio is a great story about a Lion who ate a hunter, took his gun and became an expert marksmen.

So give your kids Shel Silverstein today and you’ll give them fun and memories for the rest of their lives.

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