Dear D.P.,
I am turning in the final draft of the biography I wrote on you in to my writing teacher tomorrow. I’m typing it right now. It just reminded me of this website. I just wanted to say hi. HI. 🙂
Good luck, 11 year old. I hope the bio has plenty of good stuff that you made up in it.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
You are my favorite author. I have read many of your books several times. The first book of yours I ever read was “Borgel.” I picked it off of a school library shelf just because it had a weird title. Ever since, I’ve been completely hooked. To the annoyance of my family, I often quote sections from your books–especially “Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars.”
I have noticed that over the past few years, you have been publishing collections of some of your older novels. First, in 1997, you published “5 Novels,” then you published “4 Fantastic Novels.” Are you counting down to the release of a new novel? Will your next release be “3 Amazing Novels?” When can we expect to see it? Whenever your next book comes out, you can be sure that I will be among the first to get my hands on it!
My next one will be 1 Amazing Novel.
dear daniel pinkwater,
the rest of my family and i are great fans of your books. i am wondering if captain shep nesterman is based on a real person. see, my father lived in chicago in the 60s, and he knew this guy, known as the chicken man of maxwell st. this man would set hit hat sown on the sidewalk, and the chicken would walk around and around the hat. he would tell people that as soon as there was enough money in the hat the chicken would do a trick…then he would say that there wasn’t quite enough….as soon as there was a considerable amount of money in the hat, he would put the hat on his head, the chicken would fly up on top of it, and he would walk away.
i also wanted to tell you about this guy that i met in central sq.(cambridge, mass), who really reminded me of someone out of one of your books. i was walking around with my photography teacher, looking for things to, well, photograph. we came across this house which had this huge purple fench, and on it were things like “The intergalactic it’s not what you look like but how you move that counts mostly restaurant” and “INSTRUCTION IN ELECTRO MAGNETIC MARTIAL ARTS TM. empowering and using your electro magnetic energy field. karma free”. i have some pictures of it, but they didn’t come out very good. anyway, we went over to the gate, so that we could take pictures of the house itself, which was also very interesting. i saw what looked like a pamphlet next to the door. i sneaked in through the gate and went up the front steps to grab it. just as i was going back down the stairs, the door opened, and the skinniest guy i have ever seen in my life stood in the doorway. “i was wondering when you two would come in,” he said. we sort of smiled nervously. then he said, “don’t you want to come in and see the inside? i’ll tell you the whole story.” so we went in. the inside of his house was really nice. it had rainbow waves and swirls on the walls, and couches everywhere. then he told us the story. he said that the house had been an old hotel at one time, but then went out of business. the owners decided to rent it out to people, and he was one of the residents. at that time, the house was a few blocks away. then a monster star market(which is still there now) wanted to build their new store there. one by one the houses either got tore down or moved, until he was the last person living around there. the city told him that he had to move, too, but he said he wouldn’t budge. then he told us that he forced them to move the house to another neighborhood by using his electro magnetic martial arts. we were actually done with the photography lesson at that point, and had to leave, but he showed us some pictures before we left. it was pretty easy to recognise the house, a few blocks away with no fence. there was also another picture of the house on wheels.
after we left, i looked at the pamphlet, and it turns out that he is offering a class in electro magnetic martial arts for 400 dollars. i wanted to take it, but my parents wouldn’t let me unless i paid for it with my own money.
thankyou for reading this, i hope it was interesting.
sincerely,
Tianli dunn-fyler
PS-i’m sorry i didn’t send this to your website email. it’s my computer’s fault.
pps-i REALLY love your books. thanks for writing them. when me and my friend isis get on the phone, we read eachother part of a sentence, amd the other has to finish the sentence and say which daniel pinkwater book it’s from. thanks again.
Yes, there was a real Chicken Man. I saw him many times, and have a photograph of him. The experience you recount, (and very well told too), is completely typical of my life, and apparently yours too. Don't worry about not actually taking the course. Sometimes simply knowing about a thing is sufficient, and a deeper study would only let you down.
I lead a second grade reading group in Portland, Oregon. We recently read Blue Moose; we loved it. At the end of the story, the moose leaves to visit his uncle and Mr. Breton asks him to send a postcard. Each of my little moose students is going to write that postcard. They want to know where the postcards can be mailed. They are currently addressed to Mr. Breton, Mr. Breton’s and Moose Cafe, Maine. Do you have a more precise address for us? We would love it if we could find out what Mr. Breton thinks about the moose’s postcard.
Thank you for writing such a marvelous story.
Be modern! Send e-postcards, and address them to this website!
Just enjoyed the latest (I think?) Chinwag theatre. Always a treat, especially when I get to listen to it on the way to a rehearsal with my local theatre group, the Stanford Savoyards.
Anyway, just one thing. When you said that ‘Put out the lights and cry’ was liver and onions, you were quite right. But when you said that it was because you could find it in the dark, I’m afraid you were, well, in the dark.
As for the real derivation, well…
…does the phrase ‘Liver and lights’ ring any bells?
It rings a bell, but in sort of a muffled way. What am I, chopped liver? Chopped liver lite? How many livers does it take to change a light? A fast liver travels light? The livers and lights are going out all over Europe? I give up.
Hi again Daniel:
The email address I used to have for you doesn’t work any more, so if you’d like to write to me, here’s my address: (removed)
If you do write to me at that address, or if you reply on this website, please – say where it was that we last saw each other in person – so I can be sure it’s you!
Of course, neither of us are quite who we were (thank popsicle!), so
. . .
Fare forward.
Best, from
Temporarily boring Leonard
Hm. Where _did_ we last see each other in person. (You mean physically in person, right?) And how can _I_ be sure it's me? Must have been at Bard. It was spring. Your grandmother had left you a few dollars and an old Ford, and you were heading out for California.
Mr. Pinkwater
Can you please tell me what the heck is in a borgelnuskie.
Well, one would hope only the finest ingredients. Commercial borgelnuskies, while perfectly wholesome, I am sure, just don't compare with home-made.
Hey Daniel,
You are one of my faviorite author’s. I like Lizard Mucis that is a great book. Well in school we are doing a book report on you and i am trying to find facts about you like your life,attuitudes and beliefs and stuff like that,but I am having a hard time doing this can you e-mail some of your life stories and what you believe and what your attitudes please
Your Friend
Trisha Warren
I'll get right on it. May take a year--maybe more if I have to take time off to write the stuff I sell to earn my living.
there was a piece this morning about avocado poaching
where are the snarkout boys when you need them?
Poached avocados? Sounds quite horrible.
I just looked up the creator of the Snarkout Boys, and found Pinkwater, D. I read both Snarkout books as a pre-teen, back in the mid-80’s, and I am glad to now have the opportunity to say thanks. Thanks. Maybe my daughter will want to read them, too. Even if she doesn’t, I suppose I’ll have to track down the books to refresh my memory on how fun they were. I even took to “snarking-out” on my own, as a youth, inspired by these books. I hope that you continue to enjoy great success, Mr. Pinkwater. Thanks for a good time, no matter how long ago…
Oh, it wasn't that long--and both books are available in the paperback bind-ups, 5 Novels, and 4 Fantastic Novels.
Happy Schubert's Birthday, everyone!
Daniel,
I just finished _Uncle Boris in the Yukon_ and enjoyed it immensely, both your words and Jill’s illustrations. So I went to your web site to look for dog pictures and found only the one of you two with Lulu (Lulu’s a doll.) and the one with a shepherd-like critter sticking its head out of the car window.
How about some more pictures of your animals?
Regards,
Steve Harper
Fayetteville, NC
Residing with a golden retriever, a husky, and two cats.
That's Jacques in the car with me. When the photographer asked for a shot with him hanging his head out the window, I said, ""He's been strictly trained not to do that. He'll never stick his face out the window."" Of course, he was completely into posing, and you can see the result. She shot a number of rolls that day, and in every single picture, Jacques is looking into the camera and smiling. About a third had to be discarded because I was blinking or frowning or looking away.
Back Again-
Sally is doing her 3rd Grade Critics Choice Project on Fat Men From Space. She is planning on dressing like Hanam when she reads her book report to the class. Anyway you can send some words of wisdom from the Fat Men for her to share with the class during her presentation. She also plans to bring lots of burgers… The report is Feb 4th..
All the best,
Caytha
P.S. She says that you’re her favorite author.
It's a true story--anyway based on factual events. Somewhat.
Hi! I am a fifth-grader in Tempe, Arizona who just finished reading Borgel. I really liked the book, so I wanted to know if you have written anything else about any of the characters in the book. I think you are a great author, and your writing is really funny. I especially like the way characters talk to eachother in the story, and the names you choose for different characters. I hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes,
Sandra Nelson
Well, not _those_ characters exactly--but other characters you may like. Keep reading, and see if there's something else you like.
Dear Mr. Pinwater,
I greatly admire your programming on week-end edition with Scott Simon. I am also the founding Director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art scheduled to open in late 2002 in Amherst, MA [see www.picturebookart.org and I listen with great interest to the segments you do–on numerous occasions you have motivated me to race out to my local bookseller to add to my collection. I do, however, take exception to your referring to the genre as “kid” lit, I think this is demeaning and does an unintentional disservice to a body of literature that is afterall the cornerstone to both our verbal and our visual literacy. I hope you or Mr. Simon will put aside the irrestible opportunity for the “bon mot,” and provide a more complimentary lead-in to what is always an enriching segment. I appreciate your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Nick Clark
H. Nichols B. Clark
Director
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
Nick, do you bore everybody, or is it just me? Poor Eric Carle.
Hello everyone!
I am an English conversation teacher for kids in S. Korea and would love to get ahold of various Pinkwater classics in Korean for the kids to enjoy. Does anyone know if Korean translations of any Pinkwater works are available? I teach 5-15 year-olds so smaller picture books like the “Larry” series on up to young adult like “Lizard Music” would be great. Please help.
No Korean translations exist at this time. Sorry.
