Happy Birthday Shel Silverstein!

Today is such an exciting day that it gets TWO blog posts! I'd already posted about the awesome release of A Wrinkle In Time: The Graphic Novel, but how could I go without mentioning the birth-anniversay of the talented author of The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein!?

If Shel Silverstein was alive today, it would be his 72nd birthday!

Shel(don) Allan Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930 in Chicago, IL. He started writing and drawing at the age of 12 and began studying art at the University of Illinois after he graduated high school. He was forced to leave due to bad grades, but moved onto the Art Institute of Chicago after that, and then Roosevelt University after that. He was first published in the Roosevelt Torch, a student newspaper at Roosevelt University.

For much of the 50's and he published military cartoons (he was drafted into the army), magazine articles, and even a cartoon book for adults called "Now Here's My Plan: A Book of Futilities" in 1960. He was also a singer-songwriter, composer, and screenwriter. However, what he is best known for are his children's books, which have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold over 20 million copies.

Some of his most famous of these children's books include: A Light In the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook, Uncle Shelby's Story of Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, Falling Up, and of course The Giving Tree.

Check one out at your library today and celebrate the talent that he had!