Don't Bump the Glump! And Other Fantasies

By Shel Silverstein

New York:  Harper Collins (1964)

I first knew Shel Silverstein for his collection of poems and drawings, "Where the Sidewalk Ends," for "The Missing Piece," and for "Falling Up." Later, I read and loved "The Giving Tree."  However, I had never found his first poetry collection, "Don't Bump the Glump!" until a librarian recently suggested I read it.  Each page has a short poem accompanied by some imaginary creature.  Some of the names are impossible to pronounce ("Zrbangdraldnk"), but all are vividly described in an often hilarious manner.  

My favorite poem is entitled "Long-Necked Preposterous:"  "This is Arnold,/A Long-Necked Preposterous,/Looking around for a female/Long-Necked Preposterous./But there aren't any."  I laughed out loud when I read this poem, and I don't think anyone else could have written such gibberish and gotten away with it.  Another poem in the same wry sense of humor is "The Flying Festoon."  In it, he talks about riding the Flying Festoon to the moon, and makes detailed plans, only to reveal that the Flying Festoon has yet to learn how to fly.

The crazy drawings are in perfect alignment with the sometimes nonsensical poems, and I can imagine reading them out loud to a classroom of young children who would just laugh out loud.  Some poems, though, refer to things that are actually real.  In "The Zumbies," Silverstein refers to an ostrich and then flips it around by creating an animal that buries not only its head, but its whole body, when threatened.  In this way, Silverstein relates the nonsense to reality, connecting the concepts in the children's mind.  

In conclusion, I really enjoyed reading Silverstein's first collection.  I enjoy some of his other collections a bit more, particularly "Where the Sidewalk Ends."  Still, it was a fun and enjoyable read, and I think it would be a good addition to my classroom library.