A Light in the Attic Children's Book Review

The very loved children's author Shel Silverstein wrote two or three books that are especially popular amongst young and old alike.  Along with The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends is A Light in the Attic, and deservedly so.  First, there is the main attraction, the poetry.  Wacky, often ironic, these poems cover subjects such as estimating how much much good can be found in a day, Backward Bill (who lives and does everything backwards), the day after Halloween (and the great deals to be had then), the man who forgot to put on his pants, monsters I've met, a walrus with braces, how my head blew away on a windy day, and even answers how the baby of "Rockaby Baby" fame got up into that tree in the first place!

Nearly every page of a A Light in the Attic's 169 pages (plus an index!) has a poem.  Yet these are accompanied by drawings -also by Shel Silverstein, which will tickle the hardest soul into reverie.  Case in point, the poem Fear, which tells us about Barnabus Browning, who is so afraid of drowning that he drowns himself from his own tears!  The illustration will make you shout out in glee as will those of Skin Stealer, Clarence, Headache, and many, many more.  In fact, in this whole book not only will you laugh and stare in wonder, you'll guffaw and learn many new items of knowledge.  For instance, Shel Silverstein teaches us the "Hiccup Cure," that "Standing is Stupid" and a great substitute for steel where sword-swallowing is concerned!

Buy this book.  Read this book.  Read it to your child, children, partner, or parents.  Laugh as loudly as you can.  Shel will hear it and know he's brought on yet more joy.