Book #3 Where the Sidewalk Ends

Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Author: Shel Silverstein

Have I read this book before? Yes.

How obtained? / Why this Book? Last Fall, Barnes & Noble in our local mall closed and moved to another location.  They used the occasion for a mammoth sale and on the penultimate day of the store's existence I picked up several books for my family with the intent of giving them as Christmas presents.  I was pretty much successful in this task, although a few weeks ago I found a 3 pack of Shel Silverstein books in my closet that I had purchased for her at that time.  When she finished rereading Where the Sidewalk Ends (In approximately 1.3 seconds) I borrowed it for my re-reading and finished it today.

Fun Fact: One of my part-time jobs in college was to have children in vision-therapy read to me. One of the books they had us read them were selections from Where The Sidewalk Ends.  Years later my son needed vision therapy and we went to the same practice I had worked for,  I had almost forgotten working there.

Quote from the book: (As with book 2, I'll include 2 poems from this book., the first and the penultimate.)

The first

Invitation

If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer ...

If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire

For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Come in!;

Come in!

The Penultimate

Merry ...

No one's hangin' stockin's up.

No one's bakin' pie

No one's lookin' up to see

A new star in the sky.

No one's talkin' brotherhood,

No one's givin' gifts

And  no one loves a Christmas tree

On March the twenty-fifth.

Here's what someone else thought about this book:  Connie Smith examines the titular poem in   "Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein" at Poem Analysis. 

What did I think: I'm a big fan of Silverstein. I came in originally through some of his books, particularly The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece.  In my latter years, I've come to adore his poetry.  I picked this book first to read of the 3 I gave my daughter as I remembered it being my favorite of those 3.   I really enjoyed rereading it.  I like especially his wordplay, creativity, imagination, and his trick endings like in "Merry." I only hope I enjoy the other 2 as well as I liked this one.  

I finished reading this book on June 12th, the fifteenth day of my summer reading program. This puts

me on a pace to read 20 books by the time my program ends on Labor Day.