Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends – recited, sung and shouted by Shel Silverstein
Author: Shel Silverstein
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Shel Silverstein
Length: 6hrs 15min
Age Group: 6+
Hearing poetry read out aloud is something altogether different from reading it in a book. But to hear poetry in the poet’s own voice is an experience not to be missed.
Shel Silverstein’s classic poetry collection Where the Sidewalk Ends is probably familiar to most American families. But not nearly enough parents know about Silverstein’s wonderful, Grammy-winning voice-recordings of these poems.
Like some rascally uncle stirring his charges up to mischief, Silverstein whispers, growls, cajoles and conspires, his raspy voice guaranteed to thrill listeners of all ages, whether to inspire mischief (“Sick”) or to just plain inspire (“Listen to the Mustn’ts Child”.)
Make sure this audio collection makes its way into your car at some point if it hasn’t already. Your windows may suffer (“Stone Telling,” as you may know, encourages throwing a stone at a window to tell whether it is open or not!) but you won’t be sorry!
Having the book lying around for a child to pick up later, after they’ve heard the CD, is always great.
Access: Shop around for the CD which has all his recorded tracks; or purchase the anniversary edition of the book with a CD included, which has some of the highlights from his Grammy-winning recording; or find the complete audio set at your local library.
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