About Shel.
Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930. He was born in Chicago Illinois. He enjoyed his childhood. He attended Roosevelt High School and the University of Illinois. After a year of study, he was kicked out and then attended the Academy of Fine Arts for a year. He then went to Roosevelt University in Chicago for three more years but never finished. Shel was married and later divorced after having a daughter. His daughter was born June 30th of 1970. Her name was Shanna. Shel is not only a poet, but also a song writer. He wrote Johnny Cash’s famous song “A Boy Named Soy”. He also wrote many books. Some include : A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and The Giving Tree. Shel has won man awards for his books : The Michigan Young Readers Award for Where the Sidewalk Ends (1981); a School Library Journal Best Books (1982) for A Light in the Attic, and an International Reading Association's Children's Choices Award for The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. He also recorded ten poems from his book Where the Sidewalk Ends and ended up winning a Grammy for it. "The Missing Piece Meets the Big O," a sequel to "The Missing Piece," won the International Reading Association's Children's Choice Award in 1982. He also started writing plays in 1981. One of his best known scripts, "The Lady or the Tiger Show," was a one-act play first produced in New York City in the same year. It was a satire about a game show in which contestants risked their lives by choosing between two doors: behind one is a beautiful woman, and behind the other is a tiger. Shel Silverstein passed away on May 10, 1999 from a heart attack in Key West, Florida.