Ani's Ode to Books - My Childhood summed up with 6 Books - Day 2 -Shel Silverstein

This is the first day of my top six books from my life in the 80's that made me me.

My dad loved Shel Silverstein because my dad was a comical genius, at least he thought so. He did have a great sense of humour. He also adored music. Most of my friends' dads watched sports and news. My dad cared nothing for sports but loved music and movies. My sister and I were very influenced by both because of him.

Shel's poems and stories have a pull on emotions similar to music. We may not be able to remember our friends phone numbers but we can recall every word of our favourites songs from when we were young. I could pull off an entire improve Madonna concert in my living room today if you asked. The words, rhymes, and illustrations in Shel's books implanted themselves and I'll never forget them regardless of how much time has passed. Perhaps this was due to his songwriting skills. You may not know but he wrote many popular songs in the 60's and 70's including Johnny Cash's hit A Boy Named Sue. I bet Shel wore very special tinted glasses when he looked at the world because he could see things that we couldn't.

I love his poetry books but my favourite book was The Giving Tree. I read it hundreds of times when I was young and many many times to my children. Some of my mom friends think it is so sad that the tree gives the boy more and more of her living essence with each page turned until she is nothing but a stump for his old skinny rump to rest on. I don't see how that is sad. There is no "put your mask on first" with this story. It is give give give until there is nothing left. I LOVE IT!