The back cover of the dust jacket to Where the Sidewalk Ends describes Shel Silverstein as the author of The Giving Tree and other books of prose and poetry. The brief bio then goes on to state that Silverstein "writes songs, draws cartoons, plays the guitar, and has a good time".
Ultimately, that's what Where The Sidewalk Ends is about--having a good time. The opening invitation to the book--a poem--encapsulates the feel and the tone of the book:
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!
Where the Sidewalk Ends has been one of my long-time favorite children's books. I read it when I was younger, read it again in graduate school for a children's literature class, and have read it several times to and with my own child. I picked it up again recently to revisit it. It's just one of those books that I seem to enjoy over and over again, and I always find something new to appreciate about the book, depsite having read it so many times. (For me, finding something new to appreciate about a text is the sign of a timeless quality text.)
The sense of playfulness and silliness that is evident in most of Silverstein's works for children is ever present in Where the Sidewalk Ends. It's a really fun read; it's an especially fun read when read aloud. You just can't help but smile at characters like "Ickle Me", "Pickle Me", and "Tickle Me" or "Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout Who Would Not Take The Garbage Out". And Silverstein's cartoon drawings to accompany the poem within the text simply bring those poems into a life of their own.
But more than simply reveling in silliness, which is quite an awesome thing to do, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" subtly teaches life lessons, as can be seen in samples such as "LISTEN TO THE MUSTN'TS":
Listen to the MUSTN'TS child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
List to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me--
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.”
17 September 2008
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: A Review
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss is not your ordinary grammar book. Yes, it does contain examples of how to properly use a comma, a colon, and a semi-colon as well as how to properly use an apostrophe. But, if that's really all the reader is looking for, then I would advise buying another book that's more akin to a handbook.
What Lynne Truss does in this text is provide a wonderful historical perspective for how our punctuation marks came to be and how their usage was formed and has changed historically. In addition, Truss laments the state to which punctuation, and thus, writing skills have sunk over the last few decades. She offers us both this historical perspective on punctuation as well as her lament with great humor and aplomb.
Overall, I would give the book a 4 out of 5 stars. It doesn't quite reach the 5 star mark for me because I think that she fails to look at the internet and email as anything but a negative communication tool. Truss, especially in her last chapter, takes the Internet to task and comments that she agrees with Truman Capote who implicates that what is done online is merely typing, not writing. In so doing, she separates the cognitive act of writing from the act of pressing keys on a keyboard as if what qualifies as writing can only be done with pen or pencil. And in so doing, she fails to acknowledge the hundreds of studies in the field of Computers and Writing (a sub-discipline of English and Composition or Rhetoric and Composition) that examine writing via computer and the profound pedagogical advances in computer-mediated communication.
While I appreciate Truss' call for us, as sticklers of punctuation and grammar, to "fight like tigers to preserve our punctuation", I think that she carries her derision of Internet based communications too far.
What Lynne Truss does in this text is provide a wonderful historical perspective for how our punctuation marks came to be and how their usage was formed and has changed historically. In addition, Truss laments the state to which punctuation, and thus, writing skills have sunk over the last few decades. She offers us both this historical perspective on punctuation as well as her lament with great humor and aplomb.
Overall, I would give the book a 4 out of 5 stars. It doesn't quite reach the 5 star mark for me because I think that she fails to look at the internet and email as anything but a negative communication tool. Truss, especially in her last chapter, takes the Internet to task and comments that she agrees with Truman Capote who implicates that what is done online is merely typing, not writing. In so doing, she separates the cognitive act of writing from the act of pressing keys on a keyboard as if what qualifies as writing can only be done with pen or pencil. And in so doing, she fails to acknowledge the hundreds of studies in the field of Computers and Writing (a sub-discipline of English and Composition or Rhetoric and Composition) that examine writing via computer and the profound pedagogical advances in computer-mediated communication.
While I appreciate Truss' call for us, as sticklers of punctuation and grammar, to "fight like tigers to preserve our punctuation", I think that she carries her derision of Internet based communications too far.
Review: Poetry Speaks to Children
I recently finished reading Poetry Speaks to Children. After reading it, I thought the book was a great selection. And then, I listened to the accompanying CD. Ahh...the CD. The CD makes the book a true gem of a find.
Overall, the book is filled with wonderful poems by a variety of poets, including J.R.R. Tolkien, Nikki Giovanni, Margaret Walker, Lewis Carroll, Agha Shahid Ali, W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Rita Dove, and X. J. Kennedy, among others. The poems range from the whimsical and the funny to the more serious.
While the book itself is wonderful, the CD truly does make this a fantastic read/listen. There is simply something wonderful about listening to Robert Frost read his "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or listening to Nikki Giovanni tell us "Reasons Why I like Chocolate" and then listening to her read three of her other poetry selections included in this text: "Trips", "Mommies", and "Knoxville, Tennessee". Equally fantastic is listening to Langston Hughes explain when and why he wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and then go on to read the poem.
Of the selections included on the CD, my absolute favorite was hearing J.R.R. Tolkien read "Frodo's Song in Bree", which was from The Fellowship of the Ring. Another favorite for me was listening to Joy Harjo read "Eagle Poem", which is based off a Native American song.
More important than my enjoyment of the text, however, was my 7 year-old son's fascination with it. His eyes light up as they scanned the paged, taking in the rhythm of the words and the illustrations. He smiled at the timbre of Langston Hughe's voice drifting from the speakers. He giggled at Nikki Giovanni's reasons for liking chocolate. And who wouldn't appreciate those reasons or the depth and playful lilt of her voice as she recited them?
I know a children's book is good when it sparks in my own child's eyes that love for language--the dance and the rhythm and the play of words--that has for so long been a love of my own.
While the poetry selections included on the CD were wonderful, I did find myself wishing that others, specifically Margaret Wise Brown's "The Secret Song" and verses from "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling, had also been included on the CD.
Overall, however, this book is simply fantastic.
Overall, the book is filled with wonderful poems by a variety of poets, including J.R.R. Tolkien, Nikki Giovanni, Margaret Walker, Lewis Carroll, Agha Shahid Ali, W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Rita Dove, and X. J. Kennedy, among others. The poems range from the whimsical and the funny to the more serious.
While the book itself is wonderful, the CD truly does make this a fantastic read/listen. There is simply something wonderful about listening to Robert Frost read his "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or listening to Nikki Giovanni tell us "Reasons Why I like Chocolate" and then listening to her read three of her other poetry selections included in this text: "Trips", "Mommies", and "Knoxville, Tennessee". Equally fantastic is listening to Langston Hughes explain when and why he wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and then go on to read the poem.
Of the selections included on the CD, my absolute favorite was hearing J.R.R. Tolkien read "Frodo's Song in Bree", which was from The Fellowship of the Ring. Another favorite for me was listening to Joy Harjo read "Eagle Poem", which is based off a Native American song.
More important than my enjoyment of the text, however, was my 7 year-old son's fascination with it. His eyes light up as they scanned the paged, taking in the rhythm of the words and the illustrations. He smiled at the timbre of Langston Hughe's voice drifting from the speakers. He giggled at Nikki Giovanni's reasons for liking chocolate. And who wouldn't appreciate those reasons or the depth and playful lilt of her voice as she recited them?
I know a children's book is good when it sparks in my own child's eyes that love for language--the dance and the rhythm and the play of words--that has for so long been a love of my own.
While the poetry selections included on the CD were wonderful, I did find myself wishing that others, specifically Margaret Wise Brown's "The Secret Song" and verses from "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling, had also been included on the CD.
Overall, however, this book is simply fantastic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)