A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

That scoundrel you see

Is not really me - 

He's the coo-coo

Who's wearing my skin.

- Skin Stealer, page 147

I remember sitting with my mom and reading this collection of poems, giggling at how silly they were, and also confused at the subjects of the poems. They weren't happy-go-lucky fairytales. They weren't cutesy or about princesses. They were strange poems - some rhymed, some didn't, some had silly pictures to the side, some had strange pictures to the side, some had happy endings, and some didn't. I was always confused also by the picture on the cover of the book (seen to the left), but now, as an adult, I realize that the light in the attic refers to the light in your mind. How clever are you, Shel Silverstein...

With each poem in A Light in the Attic, there's an interesting illustration, and it is clear that illustrations play a large role in the work of Shel Silverstein. He has a very noticeable style of illustration, just as distinct (if not more) than Ludwig Bemelmans (who I wrote about with Madeline). His illustrations are black and white, done in thin (almost pen-like) ink and strange. It was hard for me to come up with a word to describe his illustrations, other than quirky. I still don't think that that captures the essence of the illustrations of Shel Silverstein and how wonderfully different they are. 

There have been controversies over the content of Shel Silverstein's poems, mainly because some think that they don't advocate proper behavior for children all of the time. For example, the poem "How not to have to dry the dishes" (on page 12) includes suggestions for children so that they won't have to dry the dishes again. These suggestions include dropping dishes on the floor. "Maybe they won't let you dry the dishes anymore," Silverstein suggests. However, Shel also has poems like "Hug o War," which is in his poetry anthology Where the Sidewalk Ends. That poem is shown below - 

How sweet is that poem? Then, there are also of course other poems that have been controversial, like "Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony" on pages 120-121 of A Light in the Attic, in which Abigail wants a pony that her parents won't buy her. Because her parents won't buy her the pony, Abigail dies. And Shel Silverstein includes a tagline of sorts that reads, "This is a good story to read your folks when they won't buy you something you want." Oh, Shel. 

When looking into Shel Silverstein a little bit more, I found out that he wrote "A Boy Named Sue," the infamous Johnny Cash song. How fantastic is he in this clip?