“Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein

One of my favorite childhood books that showed me that reading and writing could be fun and clever and have a meaning beyond the words.

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a book filled with fun poems and illustrations that are timeless and can be enjoyed by both parents and children and also offers a great way to enjoy reading together.

The poems are fun, clever and often ambiguous allowing for imaginations to wander and questions to be pondered. This poetry book is great way to keep readers engaged in daily reading by offering a wide variety of poems in both length and content allowing for meaningful reading when time may be limited. The poems are written with creative rhyming words and different rhythms and repetitions making poems fun to read aloud and also helping children improve upon their reading fluency skills.

This book of poems is great for pre-readers and grades k-4 but can be enjoyed by all ages. This book can be used as a resource by both teachers and parents to help students in grades 3^rd – 4^th meet the Michigan State Standards in ELA.  The poem book allows for students to gain a deeper knowledge in language and vocabulary as students read poems and see language and vocabulary being used in creative new ways to tell a poem and are required to use context clues and vocabulary to understand true meaning of the poem.