A NEW Shel Silverstein Book! "Every Thing On It" is out now! Plus, an Ode to it too!

Shel Silverstein's Every Thing On It

Most kids born in the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's (and the parents of those children) are very familiar with the poetry and art of a man named Shel Silverstein.  For many, you can start a random line and they'll even be able to finish it or you'll at least get a knowing smile... like "Help I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor!" ("A boa constrictor! A boa constrictor!") or "Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout" ("would not take the garbage out...").  His books are in over 20 languages and he has sold over 20 million copies of his works worldwide.  Books like The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece, and poetry collections like Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic are a must in every library.

Well, fan, Romans, parents, kids, and monkeys lend me your eyes, ears, and nose... There is a NEW book of about 150 never-before-published poems (and drawings!) and it clocks in at almost 200 pages!.  Oh, and Shel Silverstein's new book is called Every Thing On It! It came out September 20th, 2011 and it is fantastic (I picked mine up at Target for a little over what it is currently priced at on Amazon).  It has the exact same look and feel as the classic collections of Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light In the Attic (and Falling Up too, in case you missed that one).

His humor is here -- of course -- and the dark side that kids secretly love is here too (like bad children who... well.. die!). The illustrations have the same look and feel as all of his "normal" illustrations.  His use of irony and turns of phrase are just like you remember them.

And now... for something completely different...

An Ode to Shel Silverstein's Every Thing On It
by Robert Brouhard

It's here!
It's here!
Shel Silverstein's,
Every Thing On It!
Let's cheer!
Let's cheer!
Stay up late,
And read all of it!

I just bought it today,
And I am oh so happy to say,
There are poems in here,
that will remind you of yesteryear. 
At the start or by the end,
It may bring to you, my friend,
a happy or nostalgic tear.

There are plays on assumptions,
and he'll fool your perceptions,
There are funny stories,
(Even some that are gore-ies),
There are poems of insightfulness,
And some full of frightfulness...
But no matter how they beg,
No matter how they wheaze,
Don't let your parents read it,
Unless they say "Please."

So come and roam,
Through this Poetry tome,
Full of four lined quickies,
And eighty lined longies,
Boy and girls and ponies,
Talking tummies and macaronies
Legsies and toesies
And fingies as nosies
But, oh my, please,
Remember this, Dears,
When you have Shel Silverstein,
With Every Thing On It,
You'll have the treasure of laughter for years.



Although Shel Silverstein did die 1999, good ole (bad ole?) "Uncle Shelby" will always live on in the imaginations of children, young and old, everywhere.

So, goodnight, sleep tight, and don't let the Zipperump-a-zoos bite.