Showing posts with label silverstein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silverstein. Show all posts

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Playboy's Silverstein Around the World, by Shel Silverstein

Playboy's Silverstein Around the World, by Shel Silverstein, 128 pages

Shel Silverstein was a contributing artist to Playboy magazine since its inception, and for over ten years he traveled the world and sent back cartoons about what he saw.  The drawings are slightly more adult than those you'd find in one of his children's books, but they are in the same style and equally funny.  Also, Shel is depicted as a character in most of these cartoons, which reveals a side to him that I've never seen in his other works.  You find out that Shel was (mildly) gored during a bullfight in Spain, hospitalized for months after a car accident in Africa, and snuck into Russia posing as a student.  Personally, the whole book is worth reading to see "Silverstein Among the Hippies."  It's a quick read, but worth it.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Every Thing On It, by Shel Silverstein

Every Thing On It, by Shel Silverstein, 208 pages

I'm generally leery of posthumous works, especially those of my favorite authors. Silverstein was notoriously precise about his own work. But for the most part, this collection of poetry and drawings feels like classic Silverstein: a boy who asks for 'everything on it' finds himself with a hotdog covered in everything; a girl sobs about coming in 4th place in the beauty contest, with the kicker being that there were only 3 contestants. Anyone who enjoys/enjoyed classics like A Light in the Attic will probably find at least one poem to like in this collection.