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Home , Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree, The Missing Piece (book), Ursula Nordstrom, Where the Sidewalk Ends

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DIRECTIONS: Use the attached biography about the author, , and answer the questions below in complete sentences.

1. Where and when was Shel Silverstein born?

2. What was his childhood like?

3. Name some places the poet liked to visit.

4. How did Silverstein’s writing career begin?

5. How did he begin writing children’s literature?

6. Name some of Silverstein’s accomplishments.

7. Describe the type of poetry he wrote.

8. What types of writing, other than poetry, did he do?

9. What awards or recognitions did he receive?

10. When and how did Silverstein die?

Born in on September 25, 1930, Sheldon Allan Silverstein grew up to attain an enormous public following, but always preferred to say little about himself. “When I was a kid,” he told Publishers Weekly in 1975, “I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls. But I couldn’t play ball. I couldn’t dance. So I started to draw and to write. I was lucky that I didn’t have anyone to copy, be impressed by. I had developed my own style.”Shel Silverstein began writing when he was twelve years old. He was not familiar with the style of any famous poets. Since he had no one whom he could mimic, he began developing his own technique.

Shel Silverstein loved to spend time in , Key West, Martha’s Vineyard, and Sausalito, California.

In the 1950's, Silverstein enlisted in the armed forces and served in the Korean War. Silverstein drew his first cartoons for the adult readers of "Pacific Stars and Stripes," a Pacific-based U.S. military publication, when he was a G.I. in Japan and Korea. He also learned to play the guitar and to write songs, a talent that would later produce such hits as “” for and “The Cover of the ” for Dr. Hook.

After completing his military duty, he was hired as a staff cartoonist for "" in 1956. Silverstein contributed several poems including "The Winner," "Rosalie's Good Eats Cafe," and "The Smoke-off".

Shel Silverstein never planned on writing for children – surprising for an artist whose children’s works would soon become available in more than 30 languages around the world. In the early 1960’s , a friend whose own career in children’s books was blossoming, introduced Silverstein to his editor, Collins’ legendary . That connection led to the publication of in 1964. The book sold modestly at first, but soon the gentle parable about a boy and the tree that loved him was admired by readers of all ages. Decades after its initial publication, with more than five and a half million copies sold, The Giving Tree holds a permanent spot atop lists of bestsellers.

In 1974, Shel Silverstein wrote , which won Outstanding Book Award, 1974. He wrote in 1976, a non-traditional books which Silverstein himself sees as being a little "disturbing" because of the unique ending he chose for the book. , a collection of poems and drawings, was published in 1981, and won Best Books, School Library Journal, 1981. The 1981 publication, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, a sequel to The Missing Piece, won the International Reading Association's Children's Choice Award in 1982. His latest book, Falling Up: Poems and Drawings, appeared in bookstores in 1996, and was praised by critics everywhere.

In 1984, Silverstein won a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album for Where the Sidewalk Ends – “recited, sung and shouted” by the author. Shel Silverstein also co-wrote the soundtrack for the 1990 film "Postcards From the Edge," which was nominated for an Academy Award for best song in 1991, and for a Golden Globe for the same category and year.

Silverstein began writing plays in 1981. One of his best known scripts, "The Lady or the Tiger Show," was a one-act play first produced in in the same year.

Shel Silverstein passed away on May 10, 1999 from a heart attack in Key West, Florida. Reproducible activity Word Finder How many new words can you make out of the name SHEL SILVERSTEIN?

Here are a few examples to get you started: her, hill, see, sit, rest, live . . .

Word Play For an even greater challenge, try to create a complete sentence using as many of the words you found above in the Word Finder activity. For example, “I sit in the river”: all these words can be found by combining some of the letters in Shel Silverstein’s name.

www.shelsilverstein.com Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted on behalf of the copyright holder by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. What’s in a Name? An acrostic poem uses letters from a name or word to begin each line of the poem. Each line must relate to or describe the topic word. Compose your own acrostic poem in the space below, using the example provided as your guide. Write about your name, a friend’s name, a famous person, or a favorite animal, hobby, or sport. For an even greater challenge, try to make the lines rhyme.

For example: SHEL Shel was a poet, He wrote many a book. Everyone loves them, Let’s take a look! Art © 1981 Evil Eye Music, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. Art © 1981 Evil Eye Music, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder,

Reproducible Activity www.shelsilverstein.com Spot the Difference

Below are two versions of the illustration from “The Crocodile’s Toothache” (page 66) from . Look at the two pictures and see if you can notice what is different. Find the ten differences and write them down below.

1. ______6. ______

2. ______7. ______

3. ______8. ______

4. ______9. ______

5. ______10. ______(Answers on final page) Art © 1974, renewedHarperCollins Publishers. 2002 Evil Eye, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, Reproducible Activity www.shelsilverstein.com