Speaking of Kiddy Books

I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet on either of my blogs that one of my favorite books as a youngster was Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book by Shel Silverstein. I can’t have been too young because I got the humor and remember it well, but some say this might explain a bit about me (that, and the summer that I fell hard on my head three times*). Upon doing research as an adult I’ve learned that it was meant as a parody of his other kids books, but my original yellowed, decaying copy doesn’t have the “A Primer for Adults Only” warning label on it that all newer printings have had. I thought it was the funniest thing ever (and still do). The order is a little off, but you can basically read it through scanned images at banned-width. Click for an introduction, some of the pages, continued, and the rest.

*My parents were teachers, which gave them the luxury of directing a small church camp each summer. One year—I must have been 6 or 7—I fell on my head three times. The first time I was trying to slip around someone while crossing a small footbridge over a dry creek bed. I toppled off the edge and went headfirst into a rock at the bottom. It can’t have been too deep, but I remember having to scramble back up an incline to dad while crying and holding my head. The next time I was going down the super long slide that came out of the tree house/fort. The metal was hot and burning my legs, so I pulled them up and grabbed the sides in an attempt to stop myself. One hand must have caught better than the other, because I tumbled off the side. That time, at least, I landed on grass. The final incident occurred at the pool. Dad went down the concrete steps to the mechanical room underneath it and I decided to follow him . . . on my bike. We hadn’t even heard of cycling helmets in those days, so when I flipped over the handlebars I got another lump. No doctor visits for any of them, so we’ll never know for sure if my brains were scrambled or not that year.