“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is another book of poems from the creative mind of Shel Silverstein, who is the popular author of “A Light in the Attic.”  This book details poems about silly people and animals doing crazy activities.  Even though this book has some suggestive content, children will easily be delighted in this book for many years.

SUMMARY

This book is basically full of hilarious and bizarre poems about people and animals doing silly stunts.  There are a total of 139 poems contained in this book, but I am only going to recite five of my favorite poems.

1)      Boa Constrictor

“Oh, I’m being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor,
And I don’t like it—one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It’s nibblin’ my toe.
Oh gee,
It’s up to my knee.
Oh my,
It’s up to my thigh.
Oh fiddle,
It’s up to my middle.
Oh heck,
It’s up to my neck.
Oh dread,
It’s upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff…”

2)       The Crocodile’s Toothache

This poem is a bit too long to recite, so I am just going to summarize it.

A crocodile goes to the dentist to get his tooth pulled out since it is hurting him badly.  But, when the crocodile opened his mouth very wide, the dentist climbs inside his mouth and starts pulling out most of the crocodile’s teeth instead of that one tooth.  Since the pain was so great, the crocodile shut his mouth with the dentist still inside and the dentist was never seen again after that.

3)       Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would not take the Garbage

Out

This is another long poem that I am merely just going to summarize.

This poem is about a girl named Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who refuses to take the garbage out even though her parents yelled at her to do so.  Unfortunately, Sarah still did not take the garbage out and because of that, the garbage starts to slowly fill up the house and her neighbors and friends moved away for they did not want to be around Sarah anymore.  It was then that Sarah decides to take the garbage out, but it was too late, for the garbage had filled up the house so much that it reached New York to the Golden Gate and the poem ends with Sarah meeting some kind of tragic fate that is not mentioned explicitly in the ending.

4)       Drats

“Can anyone lend me
Two eighty-pound rats?
I want to rid my house of cats.”

5)       Monsters

‘“There are hungry monsters under my bed,
Growlin’ at me ‘cause they haven’t been fed.”
That’s what Harry McGilly said.
His father just smiled and said,
“Ho-ho-ho, ‘fraidy cat Harry,
Monsters are just imaginary.”
But Harry McGilly cried out all night,
“There are hungry monsters—I know I’m right.”
So just to prove that Harry was silly,
Under the bed crawled Mr. McGilly.
Harry heard a “chomp,” he heard a “slurp,”
He heard a “gulp,” he heard a “burp.”
And now little Harry sleeps sound in his bed,
‘Cause there are no monsters, as father said.
(And if there are—well, they’ve been fed.)”

PROS

Shel Silverstein has done an awesome job with both illustrating and writing this book of poems.  Shel Silverstein’s writing is witty and creative as uses bizarre creatures and humans to summarize each poem in a humorous way.  The poem that I thought stood out the most was the poem about Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who refused to take the garbage out and meets a grisly end (even though he never mentions what happened to her) and that poem expresses the moral that it is important to take the garbage out when it is needed and how one must listen to their parents when doing chores.  Shel Silverstein’s illustrations are hilarious and crude as he illustrates each character with long limbs and exaggerated expressions and I also love the way that Shel Silverstein puts the illustrations in black and white format which is mostly found in chapters books for both children and adults.

CONS

Parents should know that there is a great deal of suggestive content in this book mainly revolving around the topic of morbid humor and the topic of God.   The two poems that might be the most controversial would be “Ma and God” and “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the Garbage Out.”  In “Ma and God,” the poem talks about how Ma always tells her child to not do bad things, even though God has created the bad things for the child to do.  For instance, one passage mentions that mother tells their children to eat their vegetables, but God creates sweets for children to eat.  This poem might give children the wrong message about God and parents might want to teach their children about religion before they read them this poem.  In “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the Garbage out,” the garbage overflows the house and eventually the city when Sarah refused to take the garbage out.  This poem might worry small children who think that if the garbage overflows their house, then they will meet a tragic fate too.  However, the poem merely tries to teach children to obey their parents and parents should try to comfort their children about this poem and the importance of taking the trash out.

OVERALL

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is another great classic book of poems from Shel Silverstein and it will surely help engage children into the world of poetry.  I would recommend this book for children ages six and up due to the suggestive themes of God and some morbid humor that younger children might not understand.

Recommended: Yes