If you are too chicken to visit our 8 foot tall 266 pound Heneretta.
Would you consider:
A. A photo of your self.
B. A drawing of Heneretta.
C. A drawing of your self as Heneretta.
Please send drawings to 71 Montague City Road,
Greenfield Mass 01301
Greenfield Center School.
Thank you for all the help!
I expect to have some non-scary pictures of me soon. Ask me again, because I'll forget.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
Each year I read THE HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY to my fourth grade class. It takes the place of their formal text book reading lessons for five days. They take notes and do short comprehension checks each day. They also learn about commas in a series, proper nouns, adjectives, quotation marks and math word problems in lessons based on the story. The music teacher teaches them the Chicken Dance and to sing chicken songs. The art teacher does Polish paper cuttings of scenes from the book. This all takes place in five days. We then have an actual test on the book. This year everyone passed!! Then, we have our Chicken Day Celebration. We see the movie, which is delightful ,and we eat loads of “CHICKEN FOOD”. The kids volunteer to create a menu of snacks based on the book. We have had deviled eggs, hard boiled eggs, fried wings, bug juice, cupcakes with a gummy worm coming out of the top, chicken beaks (candy corn), chicken feed (pop corn and sunflower seeds), Henrietta’s potato chips, ants on a log (celery stuffed with peanut butter and garnished with raisins), bacon and eggs (pretzel sticks topped with a white chocolate circle and a yellow M&M), jelly eggs, and plates, napkins, and cups with chickens and the word CLUCK hand painted on them. The kids bring their rubber and stuffed chickens and I wear my chicken earrings. This year the cafeteria menu also listed Fried Chicken on the Chicken Celebration Day. The kids were very impressed! We also read you interview in our reading book, and we all agreed that you are pretty weird ,and you are certainly not boring !All the kids said that they would like you for a friend because you would make them laugh a lot!!!!
THANK YOU, MR.PINKWATER, FOR HELPING TO TURN MY STUDENTS ON TO READING!!!
Ms. Gail Weiser, Fourth Grade Teacher at Mannington Township School in Salem, NJ
p.s. If you ever come across the Delaware Memorial Bridge and have an hour to spare, come say hello. We are a tiny school of only 200 kids in this farming area of Salem County. There is one fourth grade, with only 11 kids this year. We are the room at the end of the hall with the feet hanging over the door. You would love our country air, and you can see wild turkeys, bald eagles, lots of deer, and swans in our Mannington Meadows. A wild turkey hatched 14 eggs right next to the kindergarten fence last spring. We called her Zena because she never left her nest ,even when the farmer plowed 3 feet away or the students peered down into her nest from over the fence. She carried her babies on her back when they were tiny ,and later led them all around the playground. This summer when the doors of the school were left open to let in some air, she led her babies in and down the hallway causing quite a mess! So you see, we live in a pretty wild place. It would have been a good place to Henrietta. Remember, you are welcome any time.
Polish paper cuttings? Where do you get the Polish paper? I wish I were in your fourth grade. Sounds so wonderful. You know there's a new and improved edition of the book, yes? New drawings--much better.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
How do I go about getting permission to adapt Lizard Music to a screenplay?
Do I need to contact your agent/manager, or do you handle such inquiries?
Sincerely,
Jon Feldman
It all depends. Are you an experienced professional film maker? If you are, you can't have permission. If you are a student, and want to do a project for use in school only, and won't charge money to see it, or do much of anything with it outside of a school application... you might get permission. If you are a stalking horse for a major studio, and probably not even named Jon Feldman, you may purchase an option for lots of money.
I am really, truly, honestly in need of a new Snarkout Boys book! Please.
I’m poor, and I work a horrible job where they lock me in a room with 34 17 year olds for hours and won’t let me use the bathroom.
Is this some kind of community service in lieu of jail time thing? What did you do?
Hello,
I am a fourth grade teacher in Ceres, CA and one of my students wrote Mr. Pinkwater a letter. I sent it to the publisher (NAL Penguin Inc.), but it was returned. May I get an updated address so I can resend her letter?
Publishers are traditionally awful when it comes to sending along author mail, sending it without first opening it, sending it in a timely manner, and sending it with return address intact. One is usually about as bad as another in my experience--but, since I'm currently doing a lot of business with them, you may as well send me mail in care of:
Please Forward to Author
Daniel Pinkwater
Simon and Schuster, Children's Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020Once I get mail, I try to answer it promptly--but there are times when I get swamped, and things lag. Best way to get a fast answer is right here--this forum. (You can also request that our friend Evan forward it without posting, if you so desire).
Mr. Pinkwater,
My time on this Earth would not have been half as satisfying without the likes of Yobgorgle, the Last Guru, Lizard Music, and so on.
The Pinkwater Chronicles meant one hell of a lot to a certain fat, weird 10 year old from upstate New York. Why, without the influence of your stories, I might not have grown up to be the fat, weird 29 year old I am today.
Please quote me on your new book jacket.
Bob Schultz
Stephentown, NY
You have the same chance as everybody else to get quoted on the outside of ""4"" my excitingly-titled next collection of old stuff. Actually, that's not true...you have a better chance than someone who hates my work. A slightly better chance. It's all up to Simon and Schuster.
Mr. Pinkwater,
So, I’ve been in the habit of calling my local Barnes and Noble every couple of months to find out what books you have available and if you have any books that are about to be published. The bookseller who answered the phone told me you have a book coming out titled, “I Snarked With A Zombie.”
I did a little dance of joy! A new Pinkwater book with “Snark” in the title! I was thrilled! Until she told me the expected publication date…It started off fine when the girl said, “December First.” Then she paused, and added, “Sir, the date the computer has is 12/1/2024.”
I almost dropped the phone. As an avid fan of anything Snark, my hopes had been pulsing through my veins and I experienced a rush I hadn’t felt since the 1980’s. But do we really have to wait 25 years? Am I doomed to be bothering my local bookstore every couple of weeks for the next 25 years, watching the days and months tick by? 25 years is a long time… But, heck, I’ll be along for the ride… Maybe I’ll get to read “I Snarked With A Zombie” to my grandchildren. Or, by then, maybe they will have to read it to ME!
Waiting for 12/1/2024,
Jeffrey Allyn
Phoenix, AZ
That's a mistake. The pub date is 2041. It's to be a centennial book. I can hardly wait to read it myself.
What is your favorite color? Do you have your own house? What is your favorite kind of music? What is your favorite subject in school? What is your favorite book that you have written? My favorite book that you have written is Fat man in space.
Blue. Yes. Loud. Art. Fat Men from Space. I like your name.
Does your wife ever help you write your stories?
What was the first story you wrote?
Do you have any children?
Carina Periera
Fourth Grade
Always. The Terrible Roar. None. (but I have a dog, which is like a child only with more fur).
D.P. –
I happened to surf into a brief synopsis of a piece you did on 8/1/95 for NPR concerning housekeeping. It included the virtues of over-the-sink-dining. Apparently, you would therefore be of the Sinkie persuasion. Given that assumption, at this time, we’re contacting certain Internet web sites to inquire as to promotional opportunities. Would you be interested in displaying a link to our site if we were to display a link to yours?
Thank you for your consideration.
Norm Hankoff, Founder
The International Association of People Who Dine Over the Kitchen Sink
* STANDING
* IN
* NUTRITIOUS
* KITCHENS
* INGESTING
* EVERYTHING
It's not my website to link or not-link. However, I do not eat over the sink. Such a practice is depressing and may be unhealthy. Food should be enjoyed while sitting, and in pleasant surroundings, nice tableware, convivial companions, maybe some music. Like many another, you confuse a literary device with my own taste. I decry your sinkiness. Why bother to have a civilization if people are going to do that? I could say more, but I do not wish to disgust the decent people who come here.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater
We are a 3rd – 4th grade class from G.C.S. We are called Middles Green. We’ve bean reading your HCE book. We are making a giant chicken out of paper mache. And are feeding the chicken pennies to make it weigh 266 lb.. We would like to that you for the inspiration. When out chicken weighs 266 lb. we are going to take out the pennies and give them to Unicef. The teachers are reading and acting out the whole book at our All-School.
We’d love it if there was any way you could some visit us and our chicken. We do the show on Wednesdays but we could change that to any day you could come.
P.S. You could wear your chicken outfit if you want.
I no longer visit....chickens.
Mr. Pinkwater,
Did you actually write these books, or is some fiend using your name to amass great wealth and fame?
Thanks,
-Paul
A fiend.
Does Mr. Pinkwater visit elementary schools?
How much are his visits?
How far in advance do you need to book him?
He has been known to do so.
As much as 4 hours.
Way far.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I’m an English Major at Baruch College in NYC. At the present I am taking a course in children’s literature.. Our professor has asked us for suggestions on who we would like as a guest speaker (in November, I think) and I suggested yourself. Is this something you may do? Who would we contact for something like that? It would be a great honor for the whole CUNY system if you were to consider this.
Respectfully,
Damian Griffin
I may do it, but not this November, (next month). Yes it would be.
Yobgorgle… the legend, the myth, the reality. I can’t tell you how weird it was to be a tot, a youth, a small person reading Yobgorgle (and Lizard Music, and Alan Mendelsohn, and etc.), and realize that possibly the world was even stranger than you could imagine. And all because Pinkwater could imagine it. I have longed for a library like the Rochester one all my life, and some really good chili too. And this is not to even begin to mention the Worms of Kukumlima…. sheer genius at work. Warping young minds for twenty years, and counting.
There's always talk about me (or my work) ""warping"" young minds. I want to say that it was never my intention to warp anybody else's mind, just to warp mine (more). If somebody else got warped, of course I'm glad, but it's just a by-product. Besides, it's pretty clear we live in a warped society...look at the Presidential candidates, for example...what is it when you warp a mind that's already warped or destined for warpage? unwarp? meta-warp? overwarp? It doesn't matter. It was never my intention. What I wanted to do was wrap young minds.
