Falling Up

Falling Up
By Shel Silverstein
Publisher/Date: HarperCollins 1996
# of pages: 184
Reading Level: ages 8-12
Genre: Poetry


Summary:

This is one of the compilations of Shel Silverstein's poetry. all of the poems in this book are his, and all the pictures inside are his artwork as well. This book contains a variety of poems. some are funny, some are more serious, some teach a lesson, some are about animals, some are long, some are short, some don't make much sense at all. My favorites include: Snowball, Scale, Noise Day, Furniture Bash, Screamin' Millie, Spoiled Brat, Lyin' Larry, The Nap Taker, and When I Was Your Age just to name a few.


Who benefits from reading this book?

I think anybody who enjoys poetry will benefit from reading this book. i think it's a good one for children because a lot of the poems are geared towards them, and the drawings make the poem come to life. This is a good book to introduce children to poetry because it is so fun, and it could make kids realize that poetry is something fun, not something boring.

What problems could this book cause?

This book was basically written for children, so there shouldn't be any problems caused by it's poetry. If someone was extremely nit-picky, they could say that some of the illustrations contain partial nudity (i.e. the behind is shown a couple times). Some people may not like to see that in a children's book.

My Reaction:

I really like this book. Shel Silverstein is one of my favorite children's authors. when i was younger i would read his books all the time. they make me laugh. I think his poems are very entertaining, and they help people to see how poetry can be fun. I think he is very creative in a lot of his poems. His use of words and the way he plays with words and phrases is really fun. For example his furniture poem uses all the different parts of furniture that are named after body parts such as the leg of a chair, arm of a chair, face of a clock, head of the table, etc. I find this book really fun and entertaining, and I highly recommend it.