Falling Up (1996)
Falling Up is a 1996 american poetry book written by Shel Silverstein.
Shel Silverstein's third and final collection published in his lifetime keeps his familiar mischief intact. Short poems sit beside spare ink drawings, each one turning an ordinary idea sideways: a boy who screws his head on backward, a hat that is really a snake, a whole town of people standing on their heads. The rhymes are quick, the jokes land plain, and the drawings do half the work. Silverstein writes for the child who likes a little absurdity with a lesson buried underneath, or no lesson at all. Read one poem or forty at a sitting.
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A few thoughts on Falling Up
Shel Silverstein worked across forms, and the same off-kilter humor drives his songwriting, including the country hit 'A Boy Named Sue.' Onscreen, the gentle absurdism of The Muppet Show is the closest match: a joke told plain, a hand-made look, and real feeling tucked under the silliness.
Nonsense rhymes to read aloud to a kid
Falling Up runs on the same engine as these: a rhyme scheme tight enough to carry any idea, and an idea absurd enough to need one. Silverstein screws a boy's head on backward and moves on. Lear sends his Jumblies to sea in a sieve. Dahl hands Cinderella a rewrite the stepsisters do not enjoy.
Poetry collections short enough for bedtime
You can finish a Falling Up poem in twenty seconds, which makes it the book you reach for when a kid gives you one minute. These anthologies work the same way: short pieces, wide range, no obligation to read in order. Start anywhere, stop anywhere, and come back to the one about the backward head.
Newspaper strips where the drawing lands the joke
Silverstein's ink drawings in Falling Up do half the work, and sometimes all of it: a hat that is really a snake needs the picture more than the poem. Daily strips run on that same economy. Schulz, Davis and McCay each get a whole gag out of a few lines and one caption.
Kids' shows that play absurd ideas straight
Falling Up puts a whole town on its head and never explains why, which is the move these shows make too. The Muppet Show books a guest star and hands the theater to chaos. Barbapapa changes shape between one scene and the next. Pick one for the kid who likes an impossible thing played straight.