A world of Literature

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Many readers are familiar with The Giving Tree, a story about a relationship between a young boy and a tree that the boy befriends. What readers might not know is that Shel Silverstein, who wrote this illustrated children’s book, originally had a great deal of trouble trying to get the story published. Many publishers loved the story, but thought it was too short, or too sad, and thought it would not fare well on the market because it fell somewhere in between adult and children’s literature. Finally, Silverstein met Ursula Nordstrom, editor at Harper Children’s Books, who agreed to publish it (and ended up being a long-time editor for him).

The brief, yet powerful story has been published in more than 30 other languages since its release in 1964, nearly half a century ago. The book has maintained popularity, and probably will do so for centuries to come. Silverstein knew how to write a story. Other stories written by Silverstein that you will love include Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book, Lafcadio: the Lion Who Shot Back, and Don’t Bump the Glump!: and Other Fantasies.

He also knew how to write poetry. To this day, I can still recite several of his poems. My favorites include “Strange Restaurant” and “Stupid Pencil Maker” (in which the speaker criticizes someone for “building” a pencil wrong, when in fact he is simply holding the pencil upside-down). Silverstein has three major poem collections: Falling Up, The Light in the Attic, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Each collection is filled with original poems and drawings by Silverstein. Some are subtly emotional, more are loud-out-loud hilarious, while others are somewhere in between. Whatever the case, they are always entertaining. Each collection makes a great addition to any bookshelf. With the help of Silverstein’s writing, any parent can share a poem and a laugh with their children every night. (And when you get through one book, you can move onto the next, and when you get through them all, you can start all over again!)

Silverstein had never really planned on writing for kids. He wrote comics, most of them containing humor only adults would understand. Luckily for the children of America (and a decent number of those in other countries as well), one of his close friends and Nordstrom convinced him that he had a knack for children’s literature; they were quite right!