April is National Poetry Month, and today is International Children’s Book Day! So here is my very favorite children’s book of poetry, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, and the story of why I love it so much.
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My 5th grade teacher, Ms. Sue Brimhall, had us all make hand puppets who accompanied us throughout the school year. My puppets were Gyb (named for the green/yellow/blue gingham he was made of) and Floral (sensing a trend …). And one of the projects from that year that left the biggest impression on me was that we (and our puppets, I presume, since they helped us with everything, including fledgling-10-year-old attempts at romance) each memorized and performed a different poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends. I’m pretty sure Gyb and I did Recipe for a Hippopotamus Sandwich. I fell in love with this book that fall, and my parents bought it for me for Christmas. After that, over the years I acquired a dozen more Silverstein books, but I’ve always loved the first one the most.
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About the photos, Gyb and Floral are still alive and mostly well after 40 years, but Floral is missing an eye, and maybe should consider going back to her original hairstyle of long yellow curling ribbon. And in the third photo, I’m the one kneeling on the right in the red blouse and white jumpsuit. I’ve got Floral, who by this point in the school year had switched to yarn hair from the ribbon, but didn’t yet have the drastic cut she sports today. My classmate two places to the left has Gyb. She must have forgotten her puppet on picture day! Ms. Brimhall, my all-time-favorite teacher, is at the upper right. (Oh and random fact, 19 years later I used some leftover yellow and blue gingham from Gyb to make bedding for my firstborn’s nursery.)
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