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Blogocentric Formulations #832474 added October 27, 2014 at 5:50pm
Restrictions: None
There's A Light in the Attic Where the Sidewalk Ends
 
PROMPT: Which children's author's work meant the most to you growing up?
There are a lot of authors I was tempted to use for this prompt. Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl, and Judy Blume were all my picks for this prompt at one time or another, but I've instead chosen the person who first introduced me to poetry, long before I learned about Dickinson, Poe, Frost, or Hughes: Shel Silverstein was a poet, a singer/songwriter, a cartoonist, a screenwriter, and a children's book author. The books I remember most are his collections of poetry:
| ASIN: 0060572345 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.28
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| ASIN: 0061905852 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 13.98
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| ASIN: 0060248025 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 13.59
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I devoured these when I was a kid; it was really the first experience I had with poetic language and understanding that words could be crafted into shapes beyond just simple sentences. His poems range from the fun and silly to the deeper and more thought-provoking:
DIVING BOARD
You've been up on that diving board
Making sure that it's nice and straight.
You've made sure that it's not too slick.
You've made sure it can stand the weight.
You've made sure that the spring is tight.
You've made sure that the cloth won't slip.
You've made sure that it bounces right,
And that your toes can get a grip--
And you've been up there since half past five,
Doin' everything ... but DIVE.
His illustrations are sometimes wonderful highlights to the messages he's getting across, and at other times complement the poetry itself by providing information that adds new depth to the poetry, like this one:
And, of course, there's his classic and controversial picture book:
| ASIN: 0060256656 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 10.98
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What I love about this book is that it's so open to interpretation. There have been many a debate over what the book really means, and whether it's a beautiful story of a tree that gives up everything through its unconditional love for the boy, or whether it's a cautionary tale of the dangers of taking things for granted. Either way, and perhaps because you can argue both, I think it's an incredible work of art that means something to everyone, not just children.
Writing this blog post makes me really want to go back and re-read his poems. Along with Bill Watterson and his unparalleled Calvin & Hobbes, Silverstein remains one of the few authors that captivated me as a kid and still has a firm hold over me as an adult as well. Maybe that's because when I read their work, it makes me feel like a kid again. 
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