In trying to describe Shel Silverstein poems, I can't help but ponder at how amazing it is that such few and simple words can make us laugh out loud, smile in understanding and even cry.
As silly and outrageous as some of Silverstein's poems are, others are wrought with depth and meaning.
"Red, black or orange, Yellow or white, We all look the same When we turn off the light." Excerpt from No Difference, Where the Sidewalk Ends
All of the Shel Silverstein Poems are protected by the copyright law, so we can only give you excerpts, and information about where to find the poems in their entirety.
There are however, some Silverstein Poems available online in the form of animated videos. We have provided several below.
On a different note, if you are looking for kids activities related to Shel Silverstein poems and for Poetry Month, visit
Shel Silverstein.com
.
So, where can you get a hold of actual Shel Silverstein Poems? Well, the most logical place to look is in his books, of course.
Collection of Shel Silverstein Poems - Books
A Light in the Attic, published by HarperCollins on October 7, 1981.It is this collection of Shel's work that was the first children's book to break into the New York Times Bestseller List. It remained on the bestseller list for a record breaking 182 weeks.
This book of Shel Silverstein poems has also won the following awards:
1981 Notable Children's Books (ALA)
1981 Best Books (SLJ)
1981 Children's Books (Library of Congress) )
1981 New York Public Library Children's Books Award
1981 USA Children's Books of International Interest
1983–84 William Allen White Award (Kansas)
1983 Garden State Children's Book Award (NJ Library Assoc.)
1984 Garden State Children's Book Award for Non-Fiction (NJ Library Assoc.)
1984 George C. Stone Center for Children's Books "Recognition of Merit" Award (Claremont, CA)
Within the estimated 89 poems, we will get to find out what happens when Somebody steals our knees, catch the moon, and uncover the Whatifs that crawled inside our ears and,
"pranced and partied all night long And sang their same old Whatif song: Whatif I'm dumb in school? Whatif they closed the swimming pool?,br>Whatif I get beatup? Whatif there's poison in my cup. . ."
Like in most of Silverstein's creations, when reading A Light in the Attic we can expect to laugh at the silliness and playfulness of his words while often uncovering a deeper meaning and lesson in the overall poems themselves.
See Table of Contents below.
Adventures Of A Frisbee Almost Perfect Always Sprinkle Pepper Anchored Anteater Arrows Ations Backward Bill Batty Bear in There Blame Bored Buckin' Bronco Captain Blackbeard Did What Catching Channels Clarence The Climbers Cloony the Clown Come Skating Crowded Tub Day After Halloween Deaf Donald Dinner Guest Dog's Day The Dragon of Grindly Grun Eight Balloons Examination Fancy Dive Fear The Fly Is In Friendship Frozen Dream God's Wheel Gooloo Gumeye Ball Hammock Have Fun Headache Here Comes Hiccup Cure Hinges Hippo's Hope Hitting Homework Malchine Hot Dog How Many, How Much How Not To Have To Dry The Dishes How to Make a Swing with No Rope or Board or Nails Hula Eel Hurk If Importnt? In Search Of Cinderella It's All The Same to the Clam It's Hot Kidnapped Ladies First A Light in the Attic Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony The Little Boy and the Old Man Longmobile The Lost Cat Magic Carpet The Man In The Iron Pail Mask The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt Memorizin' Mo Messy Room Monsters I've Met Moon-catchin' Net Mr. Smeds and Mr. Spats My Guitar The Nailbiter Never Nobody The Oak and the Rose One Two Outside Or Underneath Overdues The Painter Peckin' Picture Puzzle Piece Pie Problem The Pirate Play Ball Poemsicle Prayer of the Selfish Child Prehistoric Push Button Put Something In Quick Trip Reflection Rhino Pen Rock 'n' Roll Band Rockabye Senses Shadow Race Shaking Shapes She Wanted to Play the Piano Signals The Sitter Skin Stealer Snake Problem Snap Somebody Has To Something Missing Sour Face Ann Spelling Bee Squishy Touch Standing Is Stupid Stop Thief Strange Wind Superstitious Surprise Suspense The Sword-swallower They've Put a Brassiere on the Camel This Bridge Thumb Face Ticklish Tom Tired The Toad and the Kangaroo Tryin' On Clothes Turtle Tusk, Tusk Twistable, Turnable Man Union For Children's Rights Unscratchable Itch Wavy What Did? Whatif Who Ordered the Broiled Face Wild Strawberries Zebra Question
The following is an animated video of the poemBackward Bill found in A Light in the Attic narrated by Shel Silverstein himself:
Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies, published by HarperCollins in 1964. This is Shel Silverstein's first published collection of poems for children. It is also the only collection that is illustrated in color.
Throughout this 56 page book children are introduced to a zoo of Silverstein animal creations such as the Bloath and the One-Legged Zantz. Many of the poems in this collection are nonsensical and full of rhyming fun for kids.
Please be kind to the One-Legged Zantz Consider his feelings--- Don't ask him to dance. Excerpt from One-Legged Zantz of Don't Bump the Glump
Falling Up, originally published by HarperCollins in 1981 is full of Shel's delightful and meaningful poetry accompanied by his cartoon drawings. The second edition of this book is the last publication of work Shel made before his 1999 death.
It is this second edition that has won the following awards:
1996 New York Public Library Children's Books Award
1996 Editor's Choice (Booklist)
1997 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)
1997 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age
1997 Children's Choices (IRA/CBC)
Within the estimated 144 Shel Silverstein Poems, readers are introduced to humorous characters such as the Terrible Toy-Eating Tookle, Danny O'Dare, the dancin' bear, Screamin' Millie, who screamed "so loud it made her eyebrows steam" and many others.
See the Table of Contents below:
Advice Allison Beals Had Twenty-five Eels Alphabalance Bad Cold A Battle in the Sky The Bear, The Fire, And The Snow Best Mask? Big Eating Contest Bituminous Blood-curdling Story Body Language Camp Wonderful Carrots The Castle Cat Jacks A Cat, A Kid, And A Mom Cereal Christmas Dog Clean Gene A Closet Full Of Shoes Complainin' Jack Cookwitch Sandwich Crazy Dream Crystal Ball Dancin' in the Rain Danny O'dare The Deadly Eye Dentist Dan Description Diving Board Don the Dragon's Birthday Eggs Rated Every Lunchtime Falling Up Feeding Time The Folks Inside Foot Repair The Foremer Foreman's Story Forgetful Paul Revere Furniture Bash Gardener Glub - Glub The Gnome, The Gnat, And The Gnu Golden Goose Hand Holding Hard To Please (to Be Said In One Breath) Haunted Headless Town Headphone Harold Help! Hi-monster Human Balloon Hungry Kid Island Hypnotized Ice Cream Stop Imagining In The Land Of... James Kanga Ruby Keep-out House Keepin' Count Little Hoarse Little Pig's Treat Long Scarf Long-leg Lou And Short-leg Sue Lyin' Larry Mari-lou's Ride Medusa Mirror, Mirror Mister Moody Molly's Folly The Monkey Morgan's Curse The Mummy Music Lesson My Nose Garden My Robot My Sneaky Cousin The Nap Taker Needles And Pins New World No No Grown-ups No Thank You Noise Day Nope Obedient One Out Of Sixteen Ooh People Zoo Pinocchio Plugging In Poison-tester The Porky Quality Time Reachin' Richard Red Flowers for You Remote-a-dad Rotten Convention The Runners The Sack Race Safe? Scale Screamin' Millie Settin' Around Shanna in the Sauna Sharing Shoe Talk Short Kid Show Fish Sidewalking The Smile Makers Snowball Somethin' New Sorry I Spilled It Spoiled Brat Stone Airplane Stork Story Strange Restaurant Stupid Pencil Maker Sun Hat Sybil the Magician's Last Show Tattooin' Ruth Tell Me They Say I Have Three O'clock Three Stings The Tongue Sticker-outer The Toy Eater Turkey? Unfair A Use For A Moose The Voice Warmhearted Wastebasket Brother We're Out Of Paint, So The Weavers Web-foot Woe Weird-bird When I Was Your Age Why Is It? Woulda-coulda-shoulda Writer Waiting Yuck
The following is an animated video of the Shel Silverstein poem, The Toy Eater from Falling Up, narrated by Shel Silverstein.
Runny Babbit: a Billy Sook, published posthumously by HarperCollins in 2005 is a collection of Shel Silverstein Poems that Shel was working on before his death in 1999.
Winner of a 2005 Quill Book Award, this amazing collection of poems stretches silliness into a whole new language. Silverstein introduces as such:
So if you say, "Let's bead a rook That's billy as can se," You're talkin' Runny Babbit talk, Just like mim and he.
As you can probably tell, Shel has rearranged some consonants, so it's laugh-out-loud fun to read-a-loud the misfit adventures of Runny Babbit and his friends Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Rirty Dat, Dungry Hog, and Snerry Jake.
There are approximately 42 poems in this collection of Shel Silverstein poems.
Where the Sidewalk Ends, published by HarperCollins in 1974 is a definite success for Shel's readers. The warm and friendly book invites our imaginations to play and dream along with the witty and comical characters of Silverstein's poems.
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!
Once we've accepted Shel's invitation to enter his poetic world, we get acquainted with Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out, Hector the Collector, the Dirtiest Man in the World, a Crocodile with a toothache and countless others.
This second collection of Shel Silverstein poems won the following Awards:
ALA Notable Children’s Book
New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
New York Times Notable
George C. Stone Center for Children's Books Recognition of Merit Award
Golden Archer Award (Wisconsin)
Golden Archer Award (Wisconsin)
Below you can see an animated video of the Shel Silverstein poem, Ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me Too from Where the Sidewalk Ends narrated by Shel Silverstein.
And the following is another Silverstein poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends, Crocodile's Toothache narrated by Shel Silverstein.
Okay, well that's all we've got so far on Shel Silverstein poems. This page may continue to grow as we do more research on the Super Children's Books of Shel.
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