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Title: Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book: A Primer for Adults Only by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0-671-21148-X Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) Pub. Date: 09 September, 1985 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.79 (47 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I Love This Book!
Comment: I read this book over and over from the time I was six years old. (Yes, six. Under my mom's supervision. And, yes, I got the joke.) Who knew dear Uncle Shelby could be so twisted? It's a hilarious read for adults, older children, and mature-for-their-age younger children. If you have a rather dark sense of humor, you'll almost certainly enjoy this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic NOT for young children!
Comment: I have always thought of Shel Silverstein as the American counterpart to England's Roald Dahl--someone who writes ostensibly for children much of the time, but whose worldview is dark, perhaps a little damp, and steeped in a winking cynicism. Silverstein proves my point adeptly in the 1961 classic "Uncle Shelby's ABZ," a loopy uproar of a book that should never, NEVER be given to young children. You will, however, want to get a copy for every adult you're fond of who doesn't already own a copy.
As Silverstein explains in the foreword (done here, as throughout the book, in his own handwriting), he has thought and thought about children and as he wasn't blessed with children of his own, he has come up with this "primer" for all children. The book opens with a wee poem:
O child learn your ABZ's
And memorize them well
And you shall learn to talk and think
And read and write and spel.
That ought to give you an idea of what's to come. Silverstein meticulously addresses every letter in the alphabet, descending further and further as he does into a swirling pit of black humor. He starts off, of course, with "A," writing with great jollity about how many green apples he thinks the reader can eat (everything is addressed directly TO the reader, as though the reader is a child, making the text all the more seductive). "E" is a hoot:
E is for egg.
See the egg.
The egg is full of slimey goosey white stuff and icky yellow stuff.
Do you like to eat eggs?
E is also for Ernie.
Ernie is the genie who lives in the ceiling.
Ernie loves eggs.
Take a nice fresh egg and throw it as high as you can and yell "Catch, Ernie! Catch the egg!"
And Ernie will reach down and catch the egg.
Silverstein's humor is subversive, to say the least. One page has a coupon, which Silverstein accompanies with the following text:
Kids! Clip out this certificate and bring it to your friendly neighborhood grocer and he will give you, absolutely free . . . A REAL LIVE PONY!
I have seen adults absolutely dissolve off their chairs with helpless laughter on reading "Uncle Shelby's ABZ." It wickedly plays off every insecurity and worry and doomed hope that any child secretly entertains, and it does so with a ruthlessness that's mighty to behold. This is highly, highly, HIGHLY recommended for any adult.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hysterically Witty
Comment: This is by far the funniest book i have ever encountered. i've been reading Shel since i became literate, and consider myself an avid fan. This book, written as if a children's book, is witty, twisted, and extremely amusing. Perfect for anyone who enjoys a sick joke or two. I also reccomend it for a "Coming of Age" book for those neices and nephews you love!
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Title: Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros? by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0027826902 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 1983 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0060256753 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 06 January, 1963 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends : Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0060256672 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 20 November, 1974 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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Title: The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0060256710 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 May, 1976 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: A Giraffe and a Half by Shel Silverstein ISBN: 0060256559 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 04 November, 1964 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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