Where the Sidewalk Ends/Every Thing On It

Where the Sidewalk Ends is Shel Silverstein's first and best-known collection of poetry for children, published in 1974. It gathers well over a hundred short poems — some just a few lines, others running a page or two — each paired with Silverstein's own spare, wobbly line drawings.

The poems delight in the absurd and the subversive: a boy who turns into a television set, a girl who eats a whale for lunch, a girl named Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who won't take the garbage out, a unicorn left behind on Noah's Ark. Alongside the nonsense sit quieter, more wistful poems about growing up, loneliness, and imagination — the title poem itself is a gentle invitation to leave the ordinary world behind.

Often funny, sometimes melancholy, and never condescending to its young readers, the collection became an instant classic and remains one of the best-selling children's poetry books ever published, beloved by generations of readers for its wit, warmth, and willingness to look at the world sideways.