A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Author: Shel Silverstein

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Genre: Poetry

Awards: William Allen White Children's Book Award (1984), ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 (51), ALA 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999 (51), ALA Notable Children's Book, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Library of Congress Children's Literature Center Children's Books (1982), Garden State Children's Book Award (Nonfiction, Grades 2-5, 1984), George C. Stone Center for Children's Books Recognition of Merit Award, Buckeye Children's Book Award (Grades 6-8, 1985), New York Times Bestseller (General, 1981), Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee (1988), Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award Nominee

Grade(s): 2-8

Summary: A Light in The Attic was published in 1981 and contains 169 pages of similarly witty poems like the ones in Where the Sidewalk Ends. Although he had written The Giving Tree and The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, this book is the second book in the Where the Sidewalk Ends collection. It contains a poem called Superstitious which accurately describes someone who performs acts out of superstition, but claims they are not. Some of these acts include crossing your fingers, never stepping on cracks, never opening umbrellas indoors, and knocking on wood. Another poem in this collection is Channels. This poem is simple and describes that each channel on TV is just not good enough to watch. We all get this feeling every once in a while where we flip on the TV and nothing seems interesting. Channels is just one of many poems that Silverstein writes that are completely relatable. 

My Thoughts: Like Where the Sidewalk Ends, I will include this book in my classroom library for years to come. I feel that this second book just enhances my poetry collection. I would definitely use some of these poems in my classroom to help students relate their own lives to some of Silverstein's works. As time goes on, however, some of Silverstein's poems may become inappropriate for younger readers. However, this does not prevent me from using some of these poems as a read aloud with my younger students.