silverstein books where the sidewalk ends

Silverstein specifies that not just obedient “pray-er” readers are welcome, but “liar” and “pretender” readers, too.

Lest any reader think they are not the ideal audience for poems - perhaps, in thinking they are not “good” enough for poetry - Silverstein’s “Invitation” opens the book by inviting all kinds of readers inside. In dozens of poems encompassing a wide range of forms, Silverstein describes and encourages mischievous behavior. Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, a 1974 compilation of the writer’s poems and drawings, is a landmark work of children’s verse. The craft decisions made by Shel Silverstein encourage young readers to explore their id, to get in touch with their bad side, effectively normalizing wicked urges as a response to the didactic movement. When I talk about the “id,” I’m referring to the part of ourselves that, according to Freud, is subconsciously drawn to base urges and desires, to inappropriate desires and impulses. Through careful craft choices on the language and thematic level, writers of children’s verse can harness language, form, and theme in tandem to subvert didacticism and explore mischievous “id” desires in the safe space of a book. Silverstein’s subversive children’s verse uses poetry as a vehicle to inflict moral chaos, chasing kid lit out of the didactic and into pure, silly fun.

It took a radical nonconformist, like poet Shel Silverstein, to upend the didactic era and scratch the “id” of children everywhere, inviting them to tease out their “inappropriate” inclinations. This approach means acting as a reaction to didactic traditions and the society’s pressure to “be good.” By “didactic,” I mean literature that is instructional, offering guidance, in particular of morals, values, and what’s deemed “good” as opposed to “unsavory.” Much of the earliest history of children’s literature is didactic. Children’s verse offers the opportunity to normalize children’s taboo feelings, urges, and actions.

Silverstein books where the sidewalk ends