Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein

(Hardcover, 176 pages, first published in 1974)

Shel Silverstein's masterful poems and drawings stretch the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages. This outrageously funny and deeply profound collection belongs on every bookshelf. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Come in...for where the sidewalk ends, Silverstein's world begins.

Cautions: Common Sense Media writes, "Some poems are a bit macabre—a skinny boy who disappears down the bathtub drain, a crocodile with a toothache who chomps a sadistic dentist, and so on. But there's compassion and morality in here too, leavened with comic mayhem. Great as a read aloud for pre-readers, a book for beginning readers, and a surefire hit with third and fourth graders who get a kick out of reading and reciting the many funny poems." Through the silliness, these poems often impart wisdom and almost always foster a love of poetry. See the full Common Sense review here.

Ages: 5-10