Falling Up

April is busy, but I'll never lack for topics during Poetry month.*
Yesterday my son mentioned the Toy Eater.
"Where's that from?"
"Shel Silverstein."
"Which book?"
"Falling Up."
Many and various are the questions to which he answers,
"I don't know," but he can always identify the source of his
quotes. And how happy I am when he quotes a book rather
than a television show. And if he quotes from a book,
he's usually quoting a poem.
Many kids adore the nonsense of Shel Silverstein.
It strikes an amazingly strong chord with my son.
I don't remember Falling Up, but my son does.
As well as "The Toy Eater," he told me about
"Piggy's Treat" (he rides people-back)
and recited lines from a poem about a monkey
(called, fittingly enough, "The Monkey")
that uses numbers as words. 
"1 little monkey
Was goin’ 2 the store
When he saw a banana 3
He’d never climbed be4.
By 5 o’clock that evenin’
He was 6 with a stomach ache
‘Cause 7 green bananas
Was what that monkey 8 . . ."
You may recall my post on Wumbers,
a recent picture book based on that idea.
Now go out and rhyme, or read, or read
and rhyme, depending on your time.
-Spectrum Mom

You may also enjoy this post I did about poetry
*Just the time to write about them.