A Light In The Attic

A Light In The Attic

Written and Illustrated by: Shel Silverstein
Genre: Poetry
Grades: 2-5
Awards: None

This book is a massive collection of poems created by Shel Silverstein. There is over 150 pages and over 100 poems in this book. There is no one theme in this book, so these poems can be short, silly, serious, and overall entertaining to read. In "A Light In The Attic," I believe Shel Silverstein uses this poem to let the reader know that the person looking in, sees flickers of light in the darkness, whether it be dark thoughts or of the dark world. There is a sliver of hope or light when there are dark times.

One funny poem is "Prayer Of The Selfish Child." This follows the classic child's bedtime prayer, but the child praying says that if he happens to die tonight, that his toys will break for no one else to use. In the original prayer, it mainly talks about being kept safe through the night, but with this funny poem, the child wants his toys to be kept safe.

I really enjoyed reading the last poem of the book "This Bridge." This poem inspires the reader to go out into the world and explore the most crazy and amazing things out there, like "gypsy camps" or unicorns running free. But the last line can be a bit scary to the reader, you have to do it alone for no one else can do it for you.

This book is an awesome addition in the classroom. These poems are captivating to the reader and may inspire some. This would be good for second to fifth graders. For a lesson, the teacher can have the students draw out a selected poem from the book and express what they thought the poem meant to them.