my love for shel

Since I've been 8 and my mom bought me "Where the Sidewalk Ends," I've been in love. Shel Silverstein is a great writer who has entertained me since I opened the first page of the first book I ever owned by him. "The Giving Tree" is by far one of my favorite books, as it tells of a tree falling in love with a boy and always being there for the boy. The boy ultimately takes advantage of the tree but the tree never falls out of love with the little boy, even when he's an old man and has turned the tree into a stump.


If you never read his poems and books when you were little, you should definitely read them now. My absolute favorite is "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. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."

It not only caters towards little ones but could be relevant to anyone at any age. And it certainly goes with my optimistic views on life and the fact that anything CAN happen.

My love extends beyond his words but also his drawings. I'm infatuated by the fact that he creates these wacky sketches to go along with his poems. I like him better than Dr. Seuss too. Not only could he write children's book s, but he wrote many songs, including "A Boy Named Sue," (which Johnny Cash recorded). He was also a successful playwright and he wrote for Playboy. Hmm, talk about a possible pedophile.