Book Review: "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein

"Listen to the MUSN'TS, child,
Listen to the DON'TS
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child, 
ANYTHING can be."

I heard about this book when I was at university. A teacher gave us the poem Hug O' War and asked us how we would translate/adapt it into Mexican Spanish -being aware that we were upon a pun and also a tiny drawing related to the text. Those kinds of translations make your brain explode, by the way, but you also have a lot of fun doing them. I don't remember how we collectively translated it, but the title of the poem and its little drawing stuck for a while. I never looked for that book, though.

Years later, I started to read small poems with drawings, Rupi Kaur style, and I found Where the Sidewalk Ends when looking for more similar works. I didn't recognize the book at first, but it caught my attention because of the funny dog on the cover. Then I turned the page and saw it: the tiny drawing of two kids hugging. Hug O' War. I had my flashback and I knew I had to read this book completely. And what a delight!

This is one of those books that you can't put down until you finish it... or at least that's what would've happened if I hadn't had an existential crisis in the middle of it. The poems are aimed for children, but I think it was written with the purpose to entertain their parents as well. I have no kids, but I was equally entertained and happy reading it... maybe I'm still a kid, I don't know, I need to ask. The texts are rhymed, have puns, have jokes, and have drawings that are also poems! If you're an adult, they transport you to your childhood and remind you of your dreams and games. If you're a kid, you laugh at their hilariousness, their sound, and their drawings.

Definitely 5 stars! And I can't wait to read it again!

SHEL SILVERSTEIN grew up in Chicago, started out as a cartoonist, publishing work in Playboy and the military publication Stars & Stripes, before turning to children’s books. Silverstein’s poems are often darkly humorous, irreverent, and populated with invented characters. Silverstein’s poems and stories are accompanied by his simple yet energetic pen-and-ink illustrations.