Word: silverstein
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...greatest children's books, it seems, are the ones children still read when they are grown-ups. This was the brilliance of Dr. Seuss and A. A. Milne. And with no exception, it was the brilliance of Shel Silverstein...
...realize that Silverstein, who passed away last Monday, spent many years writing and illustrating for adults. In the 1950s, he served overseas in the military, drawing cartoons for Stars and Stripes. After returning to the United States, he began drawing cartoons for Playboy. In fact, he once told a close friend he never intended to become a children's author. Even after Silverstein published his first children's work in 1963, he continued to write poems and song lyrics for adults...
Ironically, this is precisely why Silverstein will be remembered most fondly for his children's poetry. He was a master of the form precisely because his verse was both innocently charming and irreverently naughty. Adults and children alike could take delight in the twisted sense of humor found in Silverstein's poems and illustrations...
...Only Silverstein could get away with tales of anteaters who turned out to be an aunteaters ("And now my uncle's mad") and the boy who, having nothing to put into his stew, climbs into the pot and makes a stew of himself ("I'll sing while I simmer, I'll smile while I'm stewing/I'll taste myself often to see how I'm doing...
...Perhaps Silverstein's greatest work was The Giving Tree, which told a deceptively simple story about a tree "who loved a little boy." The tree, in her love for the boy, gives everything of herself--quite literally--to a boy who selfishly takes...