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Hi Daniel, I'm a music teacher and want to know the title and author of a book you and Scott Simon read on NPR--it's about a young boy in a band in New York who plays with the band of musicians and, lo and behold, they start to float above the city! Remember that? Can you tell me the name of the book? Thanks in advance, Tim
Now I can't remember! Is it "Music Over Manhattan," or "Moonlight Over Manhattan?" Likely one of those.
It's "Music Over Manhattan." --Ed
Any chance of another Snarkout Boys adventure?
There's always a chance.
Hi, I have an idea for a Children's book that I would like to run by you. How can I do that?
Thanks,
Jamie Elkin
You can't.
Daniel read a story on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon two weeks ago entitled "Parkwalk" (I think!). Can you tell me anymore about this story? I have been trying, in vain, to locate it. I was driving my car while they were reading, so I had to entrust the details to my not-so-perfect memory. I would appreciate any information you could give me concerning this piece.
"Park Beat," by Jonathan London, illus. Woodleigh Marx Hubbard, pub. Harper Collins. A really nice book.
Hi!
Don't know if you remember me from many years ago at Curtis Brown, but of course I remember you. Back then I was young and ambitious and now I am a suburban New Jersey housewife. How scary is that! I do remain ambitious and keep myself busy with various freelance type projects. But, enough about me. I have kids 10 and 8. I have given them your books to read which they enjoy and in fact, my eight year old is reading The Hoboken Chicken Emergency in class - I had just bought the book and she exclaimed that they were already reading it!
Anyway, any chance of paying a visit to a Bergen County Elementary School? In fact, if you don't have time for one class, our School has a guest author lunch in the Spring...
Regardless, glad to see you're still actively writing, and wanted you to know that I remember the good ole days...
Caytha Soling Jentis
Hi, Caytha! Of course I remember you. Glad to know you're in NJ. It would cost $1,000s to get me to Bergen County, but for a comparatively modest sum, I can send a fat actor who will impersonate me.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater:
I'm writing from my desk at the drug and alcohol treatment facility where I've worked for over 15 years. Needless to say, I hear a lot of funny stories (and I use that word in all of its shades of meaning). I don't think of myself as particularly zany, however, so don't feel compelled to post this message publicly. I have no intention of tattooing anything on myself or changing my name to honor a piece of writing however much I may like it.
I just finished listening to "Fishwhistle" for the third time since I checked it out of the library. I absolutely loved it and have my husband listening nightly while he does the dinner dishes. (Oh yeah, he works in a school for preteens with emotional problems and must be given not only a daily debriefing at the door upon arriving home, but also regular humor infusions.) Also, my 5 1/2 year old son heard a few of your tales while we were riding in the car and now approaches complete strangers with the line, "There vas a man, and he vanted to catch a trrrrain . . .He vas daft!!!" Our local library seems woefully lacking in the area of your children's books, so we're expanding our search.
I thank you for brightening my commute over the past couple of weeks. I was also delighted to see your byline in the "Funny Times." Please keep writing and recording for adults, too!!
Best wishes to you and your wife.
Barbara Berger
Just remember what you've written when your 5 1/2-year-old is 15 1/2, and completely incomprehensible to you, except when he says, "Pinkwater Rules!"
This is from Tommy Salami your biggest fan in Alaska.
I just found your site after discovering the address on the cover of Fat Camp Commandos. What an odd group of fans you have.
But bein one of them, and pra'lee an odd one at that, i hereby join the ranks of the webset. I do prefer communication via postcards as they force a certain succinctness. but hey there here we are!
I am amazed at the 80 book figure. Do you know anyone but your mother who has all of them? your biggest fan in Alaska
Tommy Salami
P.S. fan trivia: I have actually met WINSTON BONGO in person
It is true. I know that Tommy Salami has met the real-life Winston Bongo. (I wonder if he knows how many Big Bob books the fictional Mr. Salami appears in). I think it may be more than 80 books.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have read your books for many years. My favorite is the "Snarkout Boys and the Avacado of Death." Recently, while I was observing this website, I noticed a picture of you sitting with Kurt Vonnegut. As he is another favorite author of mind, I was wondering if y'all were friends, and what situation that picture was taken in. Thankyou
This was the situation: I used to smoke, and was bumming cigarettes off Mr. Vonnegut. He was very gracious, and may have been under the impression that he was hallucinating me. I no longer smoke cigarettes, but enjoy a fine cigar at intervals of weeks or months.
I am so happy to have found this forum. I am a 25 year old fan of yours, I majored in English, have read the "greats," and still find myself rereading Lizard Music and the such. Your books are so original and fresh that I find myself still rereading them and experiencing the same joy as when I first "discovered" them. My absolute favorites are Alan Mendelsohn, the boy from Mars, Lizard Music, and Young Adult Novel. I must have checked these out from the library dozens of times before realizing I could buy them ^_^.
Anyway, I'm really more of an armchair fan of the non-rabid kind. I haven't read all your books, am by no means a Pinkwater expert, and have never even been to the east coast. That said, I do love the books of yours that I have read, reread them on a regular basis, and on Monday, September 17th, 2001, I finally fulfilled a ten year dream of mine and got the large lizard from the back of the original hardback copy of Lizard Music, tattooed on my right calf. People think it's the Sobe Lizard, but really it was my way of capturing the joys of my youth. I had a reasonably unhappy childhood and thanks to authors like you and the public library, I was able to escape these "horrors" for hours on end.
Thank you so much for creating the likes of Kevin Shapiro and Alan Mendelsohn and my "Pinkwater" Lizard.
Julia Johansen
I will try to live my life, and pursue my art, in such a manner as to be worthy of your calf.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
To find a bit of solace in a troubling week, my small family visited Maymont this past Sunday. Maymont is a city park, formally a 100 acre Victorian estate in our fair city of Richmond. The park includes the mansion, carriages house, stables, zoos, and extensive gardens. As we wandered through the lower gardens the good wife and I came into a clearing where there was a grotto. Unlike the rest of the gardens, the grotto was unkempt, the tesserae covered with dirt, the fountain dry, and the benches in disrepair. The good wife observed that the grotto look abandoned, to which I replied that it was "persona non grotto." That's where the trouble began. The good wife grimaced, but I found myself highly amused by the speed and daring of this pun. Repeats only elicited moans. When we met back up with my jogging 17 year old step-daughter, there were additional moans. I maintained that it is a brilliant and witty pun, but to be fair, I would put it up to arbitration, and that the best judge was none other than yourself. Therefore, good sir, we submit this case to you: is this a worthy pun, or should I abandon such efforts? Thank you for your consideration.
Had you been ejected from the grotto by a park official, you might have remarked that _you_ were "persona non grotto." Which wouldn't have been worth repeating, but at least it would have been sort of funny. To say that the grotto was persona non grotto makes no nonsense. You must be an academic of some sort.
You should repeat the words of a great man: "I should be punish-ed for every pun I shed. Do not leave a puny shred of my punnish head."
Daniel, If you wish, you have my personal permission to read this or have it read to your audience.
I wrote this poem in 1990.
Yours truly, Dave Sinclair
"220 Breaker Close Call"
playing beneath the lights is fun you know
you grab a bat and swing at a throw
and if your luck is in that hard clout
you won't hear the umpire shouting you're out
the crowd will stand and cheer you on
as you're rounding the bases and heading for home
and all of a sudden your sneaker comes loose
your stride has been broken you feel like a goose
oh now you remember what your mother said
don't use so much lace there'll be trouble ahead
you know you should listen to your mother's whine
cause your sneaker was flapping down that third base line
but good things can happen in odd ways we know
for the lace it had wrapped itself round the big toe
and as you were tagged with the ball at home plate
the sneaker came forth not a second to late
the sneaker dislodged that ball from his grip
as it swung from the ankle out round by the hip
the ump stood there staring an expressionless wreck
for the lacing had twisted three times round his neck
the crowd was shouting he's safe don't you know
as the umpire was gagging for fresh breath to go
his eyes were popping he was short of fresh breath
and who cares about baseball when choking to death
you took hold of that sneaker and gave it a throw
untangled his breathing and ended the show
two outs in the ninth and the score had been tied
when you hit that ball hard and gave it a ride
the game it was ended for reasons belate
as the umpire babbled his call from home plate
the play was memorious it made headline news
cause the lights shining over thus blew out their fuse !
Thank you.
Dear Daniel,
Could we have a word or two from you about recent events? You are a hero to us, and we'd appreciate hearing from you. Penny Kohn
Only because you ask: I am so proud of my fellow New Yorkers. How well and calmly they evacuated the WTC towers in great numbers, helping one another, and keeping their cool. Then with what courage they came to help survivors, so many of them losing their lives in the effort. I am proud of our countrymen. With the exception of a couple of prominent TV Christian ministers, practically no one has spoken words of hate. I am proud of our President, whose actions have been calm, deliberate and reassuring. I received an email today from someone overseas, saying, "We are all New Yorkers now." I am not mad at anybody. That which has to be done will be done. I hope we all remain conscious of the seriousness of doing harm to others, and also keep our good humor in the face of things we can't help.
Mr. Pinkwater, I thoroughly enjoyed your program yesterday on NPR. I believe Scott Simon was the anchor. You both read a poem on the seasons but I was driving at the time and can't remember the name of the book. I believe Jonathan London was the author. Could you tell me the title? I'm a school librarian and would like to use it with classes. Thanks! Dana Stone
The book is "Park Beat," by Jonathan London, illustrated by Woodleigh Marx Hubbard, published by Harper Collins.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater:
I have been a fan for decades. Unfortunately, I have been having trouble purchasing some of your titles from Barnes & Noble and Borders (They usually only carry Hoboken Chicken Emergency, 4 & 5 Novels). I currently own about 20 books, and I'm looking to expand my DMP Jr collection. Can you please send me an address of a retailer or wholesaler that carries a large inventory of your books. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Nitin Savur
Brooklyn, NY
Any bookseller should be able to order any in-print book for you. (And make sure the book is really out-of-print, if that's what they tell you, and not just out-of-stock at the distributor's). As to the many out-of-print titles, you have to hunt around. There are booksellers that may have them....and don't pay $100+ to amazon for an O-O-P title. That's for the rich and/or lazy. Have fun hunting!
(I recommend Bibliofind.com and 1bookstreet.com. --Ed)
Hi Mr. Pinkwater,
Ever since I came to this country from Poland, I've been looking for something that'd make America a place different from Poland - the two countries seem to be equally depressing and sad with mean people and stuff. That's when my friend Hal! recommended that I read Lizard Music. That was the first novel of yours that I've read. Then came the 5 Novels, The Education of Robert Nifkin, and the rest. By now, I have read almost all of your young adult novels and loved every single one of them. My favorite is The Education of Robert Nifkin. My friend Hal! is a great fan of yours - he even lives in Hoboken because you once lived there too.
But anyhow - the secret identities business. Recently it became more and more necessary in my life to escape the reality of everyday-ness and go on these long road trips around the U.S. with my friend. As a part of the escape, we came up with alter egos for ourselves. This is where you may feel either flattered or angry because I used your last name, because it's just so cool. I hope you will not mind this (if you do, I'll try to change it, but I'd prefer not to, as the character I have is a kick-ass character who's kind of punk and insane and reads comic books, wears arm warmers, and sings really really badly). My alter ego is named Sarah Pinkwater and my friend's alter ego is Ethan Ironhorse. During our road trips, we always have a copy of Borgel in the trunk of our car along with the giant road atlas. Our favorite line from Borgel is (I paraphrase), "I don't know how this space-travel machine works - I just use it. You don't know how your car works either, no?", which is basically how our road trips go. So far we have gone to Niagara Falls and deep Jersey (we live in NYC). Next stop: Montreal (a whole new country - apparently if you go there and don't speak French, just English, they're really mean to you. Imagine, a whole country full of jerks! What a treat!).
I hope you're doing okay, Mr. Pinkwater, especially in the light of recent insanity in Manhattan (I saw it all from my job's window when I went to get a soda from a fridge).
Happy on,
Maggie Krzywicka (going on 22)
Sarah Pinkwater sounds too much like an old aunt of mine. How about Sarah Pinkwaterx, or Sarah Pinkwater.2, to hint at the secret identity-ness? This way my old auntie will not get picked up by state police for things you may have (innocently) done. Loony on.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
A few months ago, you graciously signed a bookplate or two for us here at the Prendergast Library. We recently wrapped up our summer reading program and had the drawing for the books and signed bookplates. We have been taking photographs of the children who won each prize. I have attached a picture of the prize winner of your book and bookplate to this email. We gave away "The Big Orange Splot." The winner was Joshua Chase.
Thank you again for your time and for signing a bookplate for our library and young readers. It was much enjoyed and appreciated.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Butler
Children's Room Assistant
James Prendergast Library, Jamestown, NY
And lucky winner, Joshua Chase, also receives a summer at the Pinkwaters' farm, where he will participate in the fun cleaning-out-the-barn project, and learn traditional lawn-mowing techniques.
Mr. Pinkwater,
My family loves your books. It all started when we first checked out The Wuggie Norple Story from our local library. Alas, it has disappeared from the shelves--it was kind of beat up, now that I think about it. If I'd known they were going to get rid of it, I would have stolen it and nursed it back to health. I know you wouldn't condone stealing from libraries. Isn't there some way we can get some of your books out of the "out of print" category?
Do you ever visit Elementary Schools to read your work? We just can't get enough Daniel Pinkwater!
--- Tammy M
I visit schools disguised as another author. (See the out-of-print Author's Day, Macmillan). My books are around, but don't expect to find them staring you in the eye from shelves in the big bookstore at the mall. You have to hunt around, and check the internet. If you want it easy, amazon will charge you a hundred bucks or more. If you're clever and purposeful, you can find dealers who charge much much less. Have fun!
I think that 'The last Guru' is the first work of fiction that my mother ever read. She reads mostly techical things, you know, stuff that talks about the cerebellum and the left frontal lobe-just try and guess what a Psychologist reads. Besides, there was supposed to be a message. She wasn't supposed to LIKE the book.
Anyways, if you don't want people to like your books, why do you keep writing them? Tell me what YOUR idea of a good book is, and I'll try to find it and read it, but I think I'll still continue to read 'Alan Mendelsohn, the boy from mars' again and again.
Thank you for the...uh...reply.
Jamie Stack
p.s. is 'Young adult novel' the only Dada Duck book? If not, where can I find the other/s?
Where is the question. I can only tell you what. "Young Adults," which has within it, Young Adult Novel, Dead-End Dada, and The Dada Boys in Collitch, (and sometimes some cartoons and an afterward by Ken Kelman depending on which edition you fine, trade paperback, or mass market paperback), is the book you want. Where to find it? Beats me.
I keep writing because I have everything all set up--the computer, the desk chair, reams of paper, no job.
Hi DP,
Greetings from Ireland! It's 1 am now, as I sit hunched over my mothers laptop. I am only 12 years old, but an aspiring writer. Your books are mind expanding, inspiring, original and most importantly lovable. I have not yet attempted anything as...daring as you, but I am getting there-only yesterday I wrote my first Kevin Shapiro story. You see, I believe your literature has an effect on people, or maybe, people, certain people, GRAVITATE towards your works. I don't know what it is Mr. Pinkwater, but your books have got something that others lack. I can't put my finger on it, but it's there, and its good. Just the other day, I sat my mother down with The last guru. After she had finished it, some hours later, she declared it was the best book she had ever read.
Now, If it could be done, to print out 6 billion copies of Borgel, in every language on this planet, and distribute them, the world would be a better place. Of course, they'd have to be printed on recycled paper, if it could be done.
Waka Waka,
Jamie Stack, Ireland
ps I used to live in California
pss Did kids look at you strangely when you were a kid? Only recently I overheard a conversation at school, "Jamie's crazy all right, but he isn't THAT cracked". Should I take it as [a compliment?]
What impresses me most about your testimony, Jamie Stack, is that your poor mother has never read a better book than The Last Guru. I don't know what's to be done with a mature woman, the mother of a 12-year-old, and owner of a laptop, who has been literarily deprived to such an extent. In your own case, your youth excuses you--besides, look at who brought you up! You are a good child, and perhaps together you and your mom can grope your way to some decent level of appreciation.
Mr Pinkwater
I love your books. I have read about 14 of them (OK, I'm counting each of the novels in your big thick books). My favorite one was either lizard music or the snarkout boys and the avacodo of death. I started reading your books because my daddy heard you on the radio and made me do it. thank you for writing them (your wife is a good writer too).
please let me know of more fun books to read
Celina Aldape
(about to start 4th grade)
Celina, you're so cool! I have such great readers! And your daddy is neat too!
