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Avery

Pronouncing Borgel

September 1, 2026

When I was a child, Borgel was the first novel I ever loved. I am now delighted to be reading it aloud to my own children, but an issue has arisen. Can you please tell me whether Borgel rhymes with “bagel”, or if it is pronounced like “Borjel”? As I kid I always assumed it was “Borjel,” which I now recognize to run against common sense, so I think I am just asking for permission to pass on my misreading to future generations.

Daniel replies:

This relates to a category of question that would include, "What are the characters from such-and-such a novel doing today?" My answer: They aren't doing anything. They're chracters in a book which I wrote, and now it is finished being written. "Could I write a story using your characters and extending their activity?" For your own amusement, yes--as a commecial undertaking, could be complicated. "How should I pronounce various names and words that appear in your writing?" How should I know? "What does a given thing you've written mean?" Mean to whom? I often don't know what I'm doing, and I've had books of mine explained to me, and the explanation makes more sense than what I would have said. To your specific question I say, you don't need my permission, and you have my thanks.


Anna

Tooth-Gnasher Superflash

July 19, 2026

Dear Mr. Pinkwater, 

I was recently re-introduced to both Tooth-Gnasher Superflash and The Big Orange Splot. I’m 39 and finally have a home of my own, so my mother has gifted me all the things she has been storing for me since childhood. (yay?) I am donating or rehoming most things, but after reading your books again and falling in love with the stories’ quirks as an adult, they will be staying in my personal library. 

I also work for the car auction house – Gooding Christie’s. After looking you up, and realizing the overlap with the car field, I had to write to say hello. The Tooth-Gnasher Superflash has made its rounds in the office, and everyone is better after having read it. 

This is likely a long shot, but if you ever find yourself at Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, or Rétromobile (NY or Paris) – I would love to save you 2 seats for the auction. -Anna 

Daniel replies:





	


	
	
	

		

		
 Robert L. Summers
Thank You
July 2, 2026
 I am sincerely thankful for these three titles:  Uncle Boris in the Yukon,and other Shaggy Dog Stories,Fish Whistle, andChicago Days/Hoboken Nights.  You have made reading an adventure.  (The book with “my favorite things diet” was another good one)

		

	
Daniel replies:
You are welcome. But, no thanks are called for. I have always liked to write, starting from as soon as I learned how. I've never completely understood why some people like or enjoy the stuff I've written. I'm glad you're thankful, and it goes almost without saying that I am thankful for your thankfulness. So, thanks!




	


	
	
	

		

		
 C
Unsettling news from 900 CE
May 27, 2026
Hi Mr. Pinkwater,


I recently took a class on Ancient Scandinavian Mythology and Religion and learned that the tree Yggdrasil’s name is more properly pronounced, in the original Old Norse, with a leading ‘oo’ sound (like ‘book’ or ‘boogie’)… which would make Yggdrasil Birnbaum’s nickname more properly pronounced ‘Oogy.’ I try not to spend too much time wondering about what if functional characters were real, but I do feel relief in knowing that Yggdrasil can’t hear me accidentally calling her ‘Oogy.’

		

	
Daniel replies:
Had I known, Oogy it would have been. So many things are learned after the fact.





	


	
	
	

		

		
 Madison Ellingsworth
How do I make your stories my reality?
May 1, 2026
Hi Mr. Pinkwater!


My name is Maddie and I am 26 years old. I wrote you this question when I was 20, but I was too scared to send it to you. Now that six years have gone by, I think I am ready. I have copy and pasted it below.


“Hi Mr. Pinkwater!


My name is Maddie and I am 20 years old. I long to live within the stories you write, as they feel so much richer than anything that has happened within my life. I am a person of habit, and I don’t often encounter things that could drastically change how things are going. At this point I feel very resigned to a quiet and domestic life until I die, despite being less than (fingers crossed) ¼ of the way there. I would love to do something that would uproot it all and force me on some sort of world-saving journey, as Neddie experienced in your book. Any advice or thoughts? Hope you have had a good holiday.


Best,


Madison E.”


Though I have encountered some things and changed some things since I wrote you that note (I also plan to live to 200 years old instead of 100), I would love to hear your advice or thoughts. I still hope you have had a good holiday.


Best,
Madison E.

		

	
Daniel replies:
I live a quiet and domestic live, and like it very much. I also like to read and write exciting stories. I have a very nice, smart, collie dog, and we take walks. We find that interesting. What was your problem again?




	


	
	
	

		

		
 John Seroff
You’re still the best
April 13, 2026
not so much a question as a statement of truth.


thanks so much for giving me things to read that clarified what I was and what I could be.  I’m rereading them now at 50 and the thrill is still there.


i hope you’re happy and well.  you’re the best.

		

	
Daniel replies:
Thanks for the kind words. Now that I'm old and nobdy cares, I can admit I've been an OK writer, and more importantly, my stuff has attracted readers who should be proud of themselves--I am certainly proud of you.




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Thomas Webster
Thank You
December 22, 2025
Mr. Pinkwater- Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars found me when I was nine years old. I’m now 53. I’ve never needed a book that much before or since. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you giving the world something that beautiful. Thank you.


Thomas

		

	
Daniel replies:
 I'm glad you chose a book of mine to focus your creativity, and possibly use to deal with things in your life. Whatever, it was something you did. All I did was write a book you happened to be able to make use of. I have to admit I wasn't thinking about you, I was just trying to make the book correctly--and in your case it seems I did. So thank you for letting me know




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Laura Xixi
Favorite names?
December 22, 2025
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,


Hello! Thank you for all of your writing and art and for introducing me to your wife Jill’s art and work. I read my first book by you this year and have now read almost all of them and have had a year filled with more smiling and thinking and laughing and creating things as a result.




When I was looking up a German word in one of your books a few months ago, I realized that some of the names in the book also have other meanings in other languages like German or Yiddish or Polish that might be secret jokes relating to the story. Since Mr. Pfiff the flute teacher, I’ve made sure to pay attention to the names when I read your books. Do you have any favorite names (with secret meanings or not) that you’ve used in your books?




Thank you again,
Laura

		

	
Daniel replies:
Thank you for saying nice things about my books. People never mention, and sometimes I wonder about the age of a person writing to me--is it a young person who read a whole bunch of my stuff or an adult? I think the earliest secret name-joke in a book of mine was in Lizard Music, Shane Fergussen is a play on "shoyn vergessen" "I have already forgotten" an it is the punchlline of a famous joke. I wonder if you can find it online.





	


	
	
	

		

		
 Virgil Kay
The Chicken Man, 1965 documentary
November 19, 2025
Hello, Mr. Pinkwater!


Did some digging and found your Chicken Man in 1965 Chicago, Maxwell Street, thanks to a 1965 documentary called And This is Free, by Mike Shea. People can watch it online. He’s a bit into the movie, but worth it.


Best,


Virgil

		

	
Daniel replies:
Thanks!





	


	
	
	

		

		
 David Williams
Happy Birthday!
November 19, 2025
I would like to say Happy Birthday.. Yay to you!


I often retell the story you related about making coffee with a scientist roommate and the need and benefit of art and science working together.


I recorded sound for a living so particularly liked your radio work.


And happily, I just recommended you & your work to a doctor who has children 11, 7 and 6:) 


Many happy returns of the day– I’m glad for you and glad for us.


Best regards


David Williams 



		

	
Daniel replies:
Thanks for the greeting and kind words!




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Tony Chan
I just wanted to say thank you!
November 8, 2025
Hello, I am writing to you today because I just found out you had a website and wanted to write while I had the courage. I wanted to say that I have been reading your novels ever since I was around seven years old when I ‘borrowed’ my older sister’s copy of ‘4 Fantastic Novels’ (I am now 32 years old). I love reading and rereading your works and I wanted to thank you for greatly affecting my sense of humor and the stories you have written.




Also what is your favorite food, I am curious!

		

	
Daniel replies:
Thanks for your kind words. My favorites change, but for the past few years there is one dish I eat every day. Into a fairly large stock pot I dump anywhere from 8 or 9 to as many as 20 different vegetables, fresh and frozen. I add salt and spices, bring the whole business to a boil for roughly 20 minutes, (longer if the ingredients are frozen), let it cool on the stove for 4 hours, and eat it hot, cold, with rice, with eggs, blended into a soup, every which way. It's never exactly the same, and I never get tired of it. You asked, and I told you.




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Mark French
How Feral Were You As A Child?
October 28, 2025
Hi Daniel,


In listening to Fishwhistle and Chicago Days, Hoboken Nights, some questions recur.  Among them:


I keep wondering how you managed some of the exploits you describe.  In California, you apparently had the freedom to walk two hours to a mall, amble around for a while and then walk home.  It sounds like this must have been before you were in high school.  In Chicago, you describe going downtown after (or instead of) school and then doing the most unlikely things until what had to be late night.  Your parents must have had a remarkably open attitude about keeping track of you.  How did you pull this off?  My mother would have had a nutty if I’d tried some of the things that seemed a routine part of your young life.


Also, your Dad sounds like one of those larger than life people.  Did he ever finally hit paydirt on any of his business ventures?  I found myself hoping that, after all he’d been through, he was able to enjoy an at least modestly prosperous later life.


Thanks for taking time to read this.  I hope you are well and happy,


Mark

		

	
Daniel replies:
By the time I hit high school I'd gone farther in education than either of my parents, so they may have decided I was then an adult. I came and went as I pleased, and at an earlier age it was easy enough to sneak out after they'd gone to bed. At one point, living in Hollywood, I liked to hang out late at night on a block where cowboy movie extras and young men who I later figured out were prostitutes stood around chatting. I never saw or heard anything that might have been inappropriate for a child to witness. I also never felt I was in the least danger in any of my wanderings. I was hardly the only nocturnal kid. As to my father's fortunes, he always appeared prosperous, whether he was or notl





	


	
	
	

		

		
 Alfred DeStefano
Food of the Gods?
October 19, 2025
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,


In the late 1980s, my mother attempted to rush me out of a library, an action she knew to be an impossibility, but anyway I took the usual thirty minutes at that point to prepare to leave by hiding. A mass market paperback spinner blocked my mother’ view, containing the usual fare from Asimov and Bradbury and Heinlein.


But there was a different book staring back at me this time. More properly, it was an enwired & space-age avocado.


Many decades later, I have consumed that fare, its sequel, and your many other books more times than I can count. Which is a terrible thing, in fact, since I’m a high school math teacher, and ought to be capable of such things by now.


At any rate, today I decided to write this small note of vast appreciation to you, and perhaps find out if it’ just my computer or there might actually be something wrong with the get autographed copies and send books for review part of your website, since I’d like to do that as well. If it’ just my computer, I apologize for the inconvenience. I guess I’ll figure it out at some point.


Wishing you all good things,


Alfred (An Anthropoid Bloboform In Spirit)



		

	
Daniel replies:
I congratulate you on having a mother who took you to the library. "Get autographed copies?" "Send books for review?" No. It could be "Get books autographed," which you do by you acquiring a book, or maybe you have one, then following the instructions somewhere on this website, (neatly packaged, correct return postage on enclosed return mailer, and understood that any deviation and you may never see your book again). "Send books for review?" No. Absolutely no. I never understood why people want autographed books. It lowers the value. There is no telling whether the distinguished author actually signed--in my case all the autographs are the work of Wally Wanamopo, my loyal secretary of so many years. Including packaging, postage and time spent, the reader would save enough by not seeking an autograph to buy another book, second-hand, possibly by a better author, or maybe a medium-size Dairy Queen, pineapple-butterscotch flavor.




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Raygan Kelly
A thank you
October 19, 2025
I don’t really have a question, just a thank you.


When I was in (I think) third grade, I found Lizard Music in my elementary school library. I think it may have been one of the first books I ever picked for myself; certainly it’s one of the earliest I still remember. When I read it, it felt like forbidden literature. Like I was getting away with something by reading it. I felt exactly how I imagine Victor did, discovering the lizards themselves. I think this book completely and irrevocably altered my brain chemistry.


I’m now 40 years old and I’ve read the book to my own three kids. What an experience. As a child of the 80s, I had to interpret some of the 70s-isms for them. It’s a foreign concept to them that there might be a TV broadcast that only comes on at a certain time, or that can’t be easily rewound or Googled. But I believe the magic of it still came across. I’m taking a more hands off approach with your other books, hoping they’ll encounter one and think it’s their own idea, and make their own discovery. If they happen to be turned face-out on the library shelves when my kids come by, who’s to say how that happened.


I’ve heard that there will soon be a Lizard Music movie. I’m excited for you and for anyone who this might help discover your work. For myself, I have the natural mixed feelings anyone does when something special to them suddenly gets wide attention or a reinterpretation. Regardless, I’m very much looking forward to taking my kids to see it, and especially to hearing the lizards play.

		

	
Daniel replies:
This is what I said to the guy who's making the movie--only I didn't have to, because movie guys, the good ones, understand it perfectly. Some of our extremely early ancestors were sitting around the cave, gnawing on mastodon bones. One of them stood up and told the first story ever. Another hominid thought, "I want to do that too, only when I tell it, I'm going to finish with a squeak instead of a grunt." Then another Zinjanthropus thought, "I like those stories, but mine is going to end with two grunts." A couple of milleniums later the first Alley Oop to draw images all along the cave wall, ran down the line with a newly-invented torch and movies were born. I have mixed feelings too and they are all good ones. Thanks for liking my turn at telling the same old story. I liked yours.




	


	
	
	

		

		
 Mark French
Thanks for Advice from Years Ago
October 10, 2025
Hi Daniel,


A long time ago, I contacted you to ask about how to become an author.  I’m a professor, so I have to write something.  I was thinking about math books for little kids.  You probably don’t remember the exchange, but talking with you helped me find my way.  I’ve been happily cranking out books on musical instruments.  You’re still the only real author I’ve ever talked to.  I’m not sure what I expect you to do with this information. But having discovered your website, I feel the need to let you know that I’m still grateful.


Chicago Days, Hoboken Nights and Fishwhistle are among the small collection of books I happy re-read.  The Hoboken you describe is just captivating.  I wonder if a place like that exists anymore.  Maybe it was as much a time as a place.


Finally, I’d like to add my voice to what I hope is a group of people asking if you are working on a memoir or autobiography.  


I hope you are well and happy,


Mark

		

	
Daniel replies:
daniel pinkwater
Wed, Oct 8, 5:40PM (2 days ago)
to me

Thanks for your kind words, and mistaken belief that talking with me did you any good, and that I am a real author. I'm glad to learn that you've been cranking out books, assuming that is something you wanted to do. I think those books of mine you mention Fish Whistle, and the other one, are memoir enough. My secret of authoring is that I only ever write stuff I might like to read. It's a simple principle, if I like it a certain number of other people might like it too. Writing about my life, as in an autobiography, wouldn't be something I'd like to read, because I would already know the content. Of course, I could do what other memoirists do and just make the whole thing up, but isn't that what I do already? 


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