Again hello mr. pinkwater,

anyway thank you for writeing back and just for that i like you better. also do you know where i can find you 4 novel book? you see, my teacher is the one who owned the book so i don't have it. please respond! well acullay you don't have to but do try.

your favorite reader,

Ryan Duncan

I think you should make a Borgel movie. Borgel was and still is my favorite book, and I think it would translate really well into movies. That's pretty much it, so if you have the resources, definitely look into it.

Having seen you ask about the current occupants of the corner of North and Wells in Chicago, I'm depressed to say that the four corners are now occupied by McDonald's, Starbucks, Boston Market, and Walgreens. Old Town still has an artsy vibe, but the whole area is rather gentrified now, being as close as it is to the Gold Coast/Streeterville (which is even more gentrified, though still gorgeous and even still a bit quirky). The art scene had moved to North and Halstead by the 70's, and further west to North and Damen by the 80's. Now the North/Damen area is still "funky," but most of the artists seem to have moved a few blocks further West to Bucktown, where it's still cheap.

The whole city doesn't look like an airport yet (proud to say my neighborhood, just West of the Loop off Grand, doesn't appear to have changed much in several decades), but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Sigh.

Dear Mr. Pinkwater,

How do you come up with your extraordinary character names!? Often, My teacher has trouble pronouncing them. Do you have any advice for her?

Anyway we have your book of 4 novels. We have just finished The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror. It was awesome!! We are currently reading Yobgorgle: Mystery of Lake Ontario. Also you are my favorite author.

Sincerely,

Ryan Duncan

Hello Daniel Pinkwater,

Many years ago, while it was still fashionable to use reconstituted trees to communicate over long distances, I wrote to you in care of one of your publishers. To my amazement and everlasting joy, I got a response from you after a few weeks. We wrote back and forth several times; I believe it was around the time that personal computers were becoming popular because at one point you sent a dot-matrix representation of a potato--precious! You also casually threw out the observation that God might be a toothbrush. I wish I had given that possibility more serious consideration; it might have kept me from falling in with the wrong crowd. Somehow I heard otherwise and took the hook. Since then I have continued to toil away in obscurity while you have become a big-shot, household-name, international megastar. We all enjoyed your live concert from Hawaii and, to a lesser extent, your radio addresses on that underground Socialist radio network. Recently I was at the bookstore with my 6-year-old daughter, a precocious reader and general whiz kid like I and her mother were at that age. We picked up a copy of _Lizard Music_, read it to each other over several bedtimes, and I am happy to say its magic works on the latest generation of nerds. Thanks for being there for me when I was a little outsider. I never would have worn that banana around my neck to middle school without your encouragement. My daughter, Sophie, would really think I was cool if you sent her a picture of a potato. I assume you have upgraded your potato rendering software.

Your old pal,

Steve

I want mp3 player. What will advise?

joshua: HOW OLD R U plz tell me i need for class report Plzzzz

cody: hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what gave you the idea for the hoboken chicken emergency?

Janasha: why did you want to become an illistrater.

Virnette: Dear Daniel Pinkwater,

i am in fourth grade.

Rashard: It's fun to read your books. I read The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. Henriette is very big to us in America.

Avery: hi i'm avery i love your book the hoboken chicken emergency.

Hi Mr. Pinkwater.

I'm 42 years old and my son is 9. On Monday, the Monday before Thanksgiving, we bought your book of 4 novels, Borgel being the first, and before we got home he was through the first chapter. I had promised him in the store he would like your writing. Sometimes he listens. Sometimes he doesn't. This time he did.

At home before bed we read chapter 2 and then I tucked him in. When the next bedtime came around I started on chapter 3, but he stopped me and told me he was on chapter 5. I was outraged. How could he do this to me. I began reading chapter 3 anyway. I wanted to find out what happened. He said it was ok. Now he's on the third novel in the book (it is Friday after Thanksgiving) and I've finally wrestled the book away from him so I can do some reading in it myself; Borgel just stopped for rootbeer.

I had never read your stories having only heard them on Chinwag Theater--Lizard Music, I think. Now I have a great reason to buy your books if only I can keep the kid from wearing them out before I get to them.

Thanks for writing such silly stories. I need that.

Blessings on you, your wife, and your dogs!

Sincerely,

Robin

Just bought "Hanukkah Lights" and was happy to see your name on a story.

Years ago you told a wonderful story on NPR, I think it was about pastrami but could have been some other 95% fat, great tasting Deli food. If memory serves, you were remembering something from childhood. Do you remember the story and is it possible to read &/or hear it again.

Last. I have been trying to find a story from the NPR Hanukkah lights series years ago that outlines the old argument of Hillel versus Shammai about the number of candles to light the first night; eight per Shammai-one per Hillel. Many requests to NPR got me no answer. To my joy the story is on the CD that goes with the "Hanukkah Lights" book. An early Hanukkah gift for me!!!

Thanks for many hours of fun listening and reading. Enjoy the holidays.

Have you ever considered the possibility that "Cool Hand Luke" would be more compelling, if it were about a metallurgist, sent to an Inuit village to do community service, to repay massive Girl Scout cookie debt? Is "minty" a mood?

Mr. Pinkwater,

It appears that all of your books for kids mention chickens. Is this correct? Can you please explain why chickens are funnier than other animals? Also, why is New Jersey funnier than other states?

Hi

I found this site from a Bill Watson search. Do you know what became if him after WBAI? I have a few hours of tape but I would love to have more. Enjoy your radio work as well.

What music prefer?

My son and i have been fans of yours for years, so, it is with great satisfaction (and some pride) that i share with you the publication of my son's first children's book, Naptime for Thaddeus, published by Simply Read Books.

We began listening to you on NPR, then on tape as we traveled 'round. Your love children's literature, stories and illustrations is contagious. And, now, twenty years later, the first book.

Thank you,

bill (adam's dad)

Dear Mr. Pinkwater,

When I stumbled upon this site, it occured to me that you should know: I have a cat named Wuggienorple. He is orange and stripey, like in the book. When he was a kitten, he was very tiny, the runt of the litter. He was also very sick, and no one but me thought he would live. No one wanted to give him a name, for fear of getting attached. No one was allowed to touch him, even though he obviously needed love and missed his mother terribly. I siezed the oppertunity to give him the very best name possible and love him more than any other kitten had ever been loved. Long story short, he live. He even grew, though not to the size of an elephant, or even a regular sized cat. He is old enough for "senior" cat food now, and the past few years, he has been the only constant in my life. He is a very good cat. I think having a very good name must have helped. Thank you.

PS-- I have a WWAMD wrist band, with little plastic stars. It glows in the dark.

My friend Logan introduced me to your books some years ago, and to their characters, who spend time in funky older city neighborhoods where artists and other talkative eccentric folk live, and although I like the stories and the characters it is much to my surprise that I find myself living in a kind of slightly twisted version of just such a neighborhood, with monks who stand upon a rooftop to ring bells and a guy who makes wooden whales and chickens in his backyard and people who all have known each other for years and even charming clusters of lawyers in charcoal-gray suits Monday through Friday (yes such places do exist outside fiction, if you avoid the dreaded suburbs). Which brings me to a question. What's up with all the references to Chicago? True it is the great city in the United States, but. I mean. Chicago. You don't get book contracts writing about Chicago or about any other midwestern city or indeed about any city that even vaguely resembles Chicago or the midwest, although heaven knows I'm not requesting a book set in Manhattan or L.A. or Denver or Cheyenne or even Baltimore. Just curious, is all....

Hey, I'm a big fan. I'm twelve years old and i'm in the 7th grade. How tall are you?

Mr. Pinkwater,

I have just started teaching first grade in Arlington, VA. We've been learning about different authors in the Library, so I began an "Author of the Month" series for my classroom. You are our first author of study and we are just getting underway - the children are fighting over which book to read first! Currently, we're reading my favorite (so far!) "Tooth-Gnasher Superflash."

I was wondering if there was any way to purchase copies of Chinwag Theater shows online or if any of your books are available on tape? I think my students would really enjoy hearing you read your books.

Thank you for inspiring us all and helping us laugh - which is worth more than I can say.

Ms. Menard

First Grade

Glebe Elementary

Arlington, VA

Mr. Pinkwater,

Needless to say, your work has molded my life, inspiring quirk and original (if it weren't so influenced by you) thought into my thought, which would otherwise resemble that of any ordinary 22 year-old American man.

For background: I've recently graduated from a respectable university with a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature and language; this may or may not prove useful in my future. "Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars" has indubitably taken a role in my drama of the greatest literary works ever composed within this universe, and I've, yesterday, opened myself to its mystique for the indefinite-th time. This beautifully intelligent decision coincides eerily with the realization that I have very little in the way of plans for my life--all I am sure is that I want to read, and love, feel human, enjoy various cuisines of this world, and during all this retain a sense of accomplishment. Thus, I find myself here, now, writing to the man I would, if forced, generally call my hero: what words can you offer? Can you contribute practical, simple or even complex advice in this situation, relatively odd, overwhelming, as such over the internet(how many of your devotees write so heavily! in content?)?

I didn't wake this morning with the intention of interrupting the quotidian with philosophizing pleas, but now these very questions, and the birth of their answers from Daniel Pinkwater's mouth (and only his!) seems essential.

I comprehend the absurd--the relation between our lack of relation and my asking what I ask--but I beg: don't let a poor banker wind up victim to the psychological whirlpool of modern pressures...

Faithfully yours,

K.