Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6, younger for reading aloud. It's been a long wait for fans of A Light in the Attic (1981), but it was worth it. This new collection includes more than 150 poems, ranging from the story of Pinocchio ("that little wooden bloke-io" ) in 11 verses to the poignant, two-line "Stone Airplane" : "I made an airplane out of stone . . . / I always did like staying home." As always, Silverstein has a direct line to what kids like, and he gives them poems celebrating the gross, the scary, the absurd, and the comical. The drawings are much more than decoration. They often extend a poem's meaning and, in many cases, add some great comedy. "Imagining," for example, which begins, "You're only just imagining / A mouse is in your hair," is accompanied by a picture showing a little girl with an elephant on her head. Wordplay abounds, as in the poem "The Gnome, the Gnat, and the Gnu" ("That gnat ain't done gnothing to you" ), and the meter only falters a few times. Silverstein also cleverly plays with the design of the book, occasionally continuing a drawing onto the next spread. His final picture actually disappears into the central ditch of the book, with a warning not to pursue, "cause if you try finding / some more in the binding, you may just . . . disappear." And in addition to all the laughs, he slips in some thought-provoking verses about animal rights, morality, and the strange ways humans behave. Expect high demand, and stock up. --Susan Dove Lempke
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
All the things that children loved about A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends can be found in abundance in this eclectic volume, Silverstein's first book of poetry in 20 years. By turns cheeky and clever and often darkly subversive, the poems are vintage Silverstein, presented in a black-and-white format that duplicates his earlier books. Like Roald Dahl, Silverstein's cartoons and poems are humorously seditious, often giving voice to a child's desire to be empowered or to retaliate for perceived injustice: one child character wields a "Remote-a-Dad" that will instantly control his father, and another dreams of his teachers becoming his students so that when they talk or laugh in class, he can "pinch 'em 'til they [cry]." The poems focus on the unexpected-a piglet receives a "people-back ride" and Medusa's snake-hair argues about whether to be coifed in cornrows or bangs. Sometimes the art traffics in gross-out, as when William Tell gets an arrow through his forehead or a cartoon character sticks carrots in his sockets because he's heard that carrots are good for his eyes. Although some parents and teachers may cringe at such touches, Silverstein's anti-establishment humor percolates as he lampoons conventions (the stork not only brings babies but "comes and gets the older folks/ When it's their time to go"), or discards decorum (a small gardener zips up his pants after watering the plants "that way"). No matter that the author's rhythms and rhymes can be sloppy, or that his annoying insistence on leavin' off the endin' to his ING's seems artificially folksy, Silverstein's ability to see the world from, as he says, "a different angle" will undoubtedly earn this book a wide audience. All ages. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3 UpFifteen years after A Light in the Attic (1981) and 22 years after Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974, both HarperCollins), Silverstein, whose poetry has achieved cultlike popularity, offers readers another collection. While bodily functions seem to be the source of humor in more poems than in the earlier titles, and while there are fewer wonderful images here, the child appeal is as strong as ever. Once again, Silverstein's pen-and-ink drawings are the perfect accompaniment to the poems, always extending and often explaining the words. The book abounds in energetic wordplay ("I saw an ol' gnome/Take a gknock at a gnat/Who was gnibbling the gnose of his gnu") and childlike silliness ("I only ate one drumstick/At the picnic dance this summer...But everybody's mad at me,/Especially the drummer"). Silverstein writes wonderful nonsense verse, but he has used rhyme and rhythm to greater effect in the past. There is much to love in Falling Up, but it has its ups and downs.Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Younger, Intermediate) Illustrated by James Stevenson. The duo responsible for The New Kid on the Block and Something Big Has Been Here (both Greenwillow) have again combined talents to create an appealing collection of short poetry. Stevenson's spirited line and wash drawings effectively convey the tone of the jaunty, usually funny, often silly, sometimes gross, and always childlike poems. Memorable characters are quickly sketched in words and in pictures: Chuck, "the chore evader and adept procrastinator," has many strategies and will gladly "demonstrate them later." Sara Sue does not wish to go to school "and Mother, if you make me, / I will eat a worm or two.' / 'Do you mean worms like these, my dear?' / her mother firmly said. / I got them in the garden, / they're extremely long and red." Poems play with words, with the form and shape of language. "I'm AlL mIxED up . . . /i'M lOokinG cLOsELy at This pOEm, / bUT STIlL dOn'T HAvE a CLue." "A Dizzy Little Duzzle" meanders all around the page, while the presentation of "Zeke McPeake" is as small as his voice, "but a teeny squeak." Poems in varied typeface and placement in an open format combine with the economical line of well-placed sketches to create a fast-paced and accessible collection that's loads of fun. Index. m.b.s. Shel Silverstein, Author-Illustrator Falling Up (Younger, Intermediate) This book is patterned after (in fact looks just like) Silverstein's two phenomenally successful previous volumes, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic (both Harper). But anyone who expects children to greet this book with the same uninhibited enthusiasm is likely to be disappointed. Some of the verses, like "Scale," in which a pot-bellied figure standing on a scale is ruminating over his weight, speak to adult concerns. Others, like "Cereal," in which the brands mentioned are not likely to appear in any child's list of ten favorite cereals, seem dated. At times, the poems take on a decidedly preachy tone. An occasional touch of the old spark appears here and there, but these are less frequent than the cheap bathroom humor, which will make adults, at least, wince: "We gave you a chance / To water the plants. / We didn't mean that way - / Now zip up your pants." For his previous collections, Silverstein can be thanked for helping to return children's poetry to its populist roots, reminding adults that nonsense can help kids wrestle with life's ironies, and teaching kids that poetry can be a shortcut to the truth. The present collection seems to have forgotten its creator's best lessons. n.v. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Well, finally. In this long-overdue follow-up to A Light In The Attic (1981), Silverstein once again displays the talent for wordplay and idea-play that keeps his poetry evergreen. In bumptious verse that seldom runs more than three or four stanzas, he introduces a gallery of daffy characters, including the Terrible Toy-Eating Tookle, a hamburger named James, blissfully oblivious Headphone Harold, and the so-attractive folk attending the ``Rotten Convention''--``Mr. Mud and the Creepin' Crud/And the Drooler and Belchin' Bob,'' to name but a few. The humor has become more alimentary with the years, but the lively, deceptively simple art hasn't changed a bit. Its puzzled-looking young people (with an occasional monster or grimacing grown-up thrown in) provide visual punchlines and make silly situations explicit; a short ten-year-old ``grows another foot''--from the top of his head--and a worried child is assured that there's no mouse in her hair (it's an elephant). Readers chortling their way through this inspired assemblage of cautionary tales, verbal hijinks, and thoughtful observations, deftly inserted, will find the temptation to read parts of it aloud irresistible. (index) (Poetry. 7+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
