Falling Up

by Shel Silverstein, Shel Silverstein (Illustrator)

Overview

Millie McDeevit screamed a scream
So loud it made her eyebrows steam.
She screamed so loud
Her jawbone broke,
Her tongue caught fire,
Her nostrils smoked...

Poor Screamin' Millie is just one of the unforgettable characters in this wondrous new book of poems and drawings by the creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. Here you will also meet Allison Beals and her twenty-five eels; Danny O'Dare, the dancin' bear; the Human Balloon; and Headphone Harold.

So come, wander through the Nose Garden, ride the Little Hoarse, eat in the Strange Restaurant, and let the magic of Shel Silverstein open your eyes and tickle your mind.With over one hundred new poems and drawings by the master of wit and wisdom, Shel Silverstein's magical tradition continues. Meet Allison Beals and Her 25 Eels, Reachin' Richard, the clothes dryin' Moose, the thieving Nap Taker, Danny O'Dare, the Dancin' Bear, the ill-fated Headphone Harry and many more unforgettable characters as Shel Silverstein draws you into his world with this wondrous new collection.

1996 Children's Books (NY Public Library)
Editor's Chice 1996 (Booklist)
1997 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (ALA)
1997 Books for the Teen Age (NY Public Library)
Children's Choices for 1997 (IRA/CBC)

Author Biography: Shel Silverstein, renowned creator of songs, cartoons, plays and author was best known for his children's books, which have sold over 18 million copies in hardcover and have been translated into 20 languages.

Silverstein's friend, Tomi Ungerer, suggested he write for children and introduced him to the editor,Ursula Nordstrom, who published his first book for children, Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. But it was his second book that catapulted him into the spotlight as a bestselling author/illustrator. Published in 1964, The Giving Tree, was hailed all over the country as an inspirational parable. With over five million books sold, The Giving Tree is a childhood classic, which celebrates it's 35th anniversary this fall.

Shel Silverstein wrote nine books for children including Falling Up; A Light in the Attic; Where the Sidewalk Ends; The Missing Piece; The Missing Piece Meets the Big O; and A Giraffe and a Half.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060248031
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/10/1996
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	913,755
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.92(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Shel Silverstein 's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, as well as classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit.

Shel Silverstein 's incomparable career as a bestselling children's book author and illustrator began with Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back. He is also the creator of picture books including A Giraffe and a Half, Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros?, The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and the perennial favorite The Giving Tree, as well as classic poetry collections such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Every Thing On It, Don't Bump the Glump!, and Runny Babbit.

Date of Birth:

September 25, 1930

Date of Death:

May 10, 1999

Place of Birth:

Chicago, Illinois

Place of Death:

Key West, Florida

Education:

Chicago School of Fine Arts; University of Illinois (no degree)

Website:

http://www.shelsilverstein.com

Read an Excerpt

The Toy Eater
You don't have to pick up your toys, okay?
You can leave 'em right there on the floor,
So tonight when the Terrible Toy-Eatin' Tookly
Comes tiptoein' in through the crack in the door,
He'll crunch all your soldiers, he'll munch on your trucks,
He'll chew your poor puppets to shreds,
He'll swallow your Big Wheel and slurp up your paints
And bite off your dear dollies' heads.
Then he'll wipe off his lips with the sails of your ship,
And making a burpity noise,
He'll slither away -- but hey, that's okay,
You don't have to pick up your toys.
_{From FALLING UP by Shel Silverstein c 1996 by Shel Silverstein. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.}

Editorial Reviews

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)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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

School Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews