Everything On It

Congratulations to Laura Maxwell of Hull, MA on winning this week's book giveaway! While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

At SixSeeds, we believe in the power of a good story... even the books our small children are hearing and reading.  Stories have an amazing power to move, inspire, and sometimes even transform lives... even young lives. This week, we take a popular kids' book and examine it. Hopefully, the next time you're browsing though a crowded bookstore...  you can choose wisely!

Title: Everything On It
 Cost: $10.99
Buy it: here 

We’re planning a Fall Break vacation to Gatlinburg, and every time we talk about it my son breaks out into song:

“Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July, and I just hit town and my throat was dry. I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew,” he sings.

This, of course, is taken from Johnny Cash’s amazing song, “A Boy Named Sue,” which is one of our favorite family songs.  But only recently did I find out who wrote it: Shel Silverstein.

Yes, the author who looked like a pirate and wrote the annoyingly depressing book “The Giving Tree,” also wrote some great lyrics.  A Boy Named Sue is just one of his great pieces, along with the fantastic books “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “A Light in the Attic.”

Though he passed away in 1999 at the age of 68, his family is publishing a new book of his poems called “Everything On It.”  Mitch Myers, Silverstein's nephew, said his uncle had over 1,500 poems that haven’t been published.  He and a small number of family members got together over the course of a year to read his poems aloud and decide which poems to include in this new volume. 

The resulting book is named after one of the poems about a boy who asked for a hot dog with "everything on it." What he gets is much more than he bargained for.

I asked for a hot dog
With everything on it
And that was my big mistake,
'Cause it came with a parrot,
A bee in a bonnet,
A wristwatch, a wrench, and a rake.
It came with a goldfish,
A flag, and a fiddle,
A frog, and a front porch swing,
And a mouse in a mask—
That's the last time I ask
For a hot dog with everything. 

These sing-song poems are meant to be read aloud.  So, I plan on getting the book, clearing my throat, and trying to make Johnny Cash proud.  We’re not going to an old saloon on a street of mud, where “there at a table, dealing stud, sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me ‘Sue.’"  Instead, we’re going to Dollywood… which just doesn’t seem as exciting, does it?

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always love to hear from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification.  When you receive your package in the mail, you'll find out which book you received!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.