A Light in the Attic was one of my favorite books growing up. I would sit for hours and get lost in the world of Shel Silverstein. From poems like "What Did?" about carrots talking to wheat and paper talking to pen, to poems like "Buckin' Bronco" about riding a horse in the rodeo, a child can get lost for hours inside their own imagination.
I think that this book would be good for a unit on poetry. I think that sometimes teaching poetry to children can get a bit muddled if not using the right material. I think that if a teacher ran off copies of some of the shorter poems from the book and gave students a choice as to which one they would like to study it could build on the child's interests while keeping it short enough to not bore them. Once their interest has been sparked I think that a whole unit or even an author study could be done on Shel Silverstein and his works.
The one thing I think is most useful in this text is the mental imagery the poems provide for children that are merely sparked by the illustrations. All of the illustrations are pencil drawings with no color but seem to be the poem come to life on the paper.
This book would be great used in the upper elementary grades like third through fifth. I think that once a students interests are sparked for this book it would be great silent reading book or a great read aloud book for the whole class.
This is one of my favorite books too! I agree that this would be good to introduce with a unit on poetry. Sometimes it's hard to get kids to understand that not all poetry has rhyming and this would give them that clear picture different types they could use.
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