Steve Van Hook
Post #3047 – 20120716
July 16, 2012
I'm a huge fan of your books, particularly the Big Orange Splot and give it out to anyone I can! (Some of my other favorites are Chicago Days/Hoboken Nights; Borgel – I think the classic line was something like "never bet on an eggplant" – and The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death.)
I recently started playing around with songwriting for fun (my day job is a physics teacher) and one of my first projects was to make a song out of "Big Orange Splot" because I loved it so much. If you have any interest in seeing/hearing it, I'd love to share it with you. I tried to stick as close as possible to your text, with just a few changes to fit in into the song form. (I see elsewhere on your website mention of other songs written based on your books.) I've never played the song for anyone but my son (who also loves the book), but before I were to share it with anyone else, I'd want to get your permission.
Either way, I wanted to say how much I love your books and hearing you on NPR!
Daniel replies:
Webmaster Ed and I are discussing a project of which the working title is ""Captain Pinkwater's Amateur, Outsider Art and Felaffel Hour,"" which will be combined with his Orthomolecular Podiatry and Circumcision clinic. (Just now we are arguing about whether it would be considered proper practice to have a tip jar.) But in the meantime we can just put links to expressions in song on this part of the website. Take it away, Ed!
Nora Bloch
Post #3045 – 20120714
July 14, 2012
My husband and I first heard you when you and Scott Simon did that wonderful show and read Lizard Music. Since then we have had two children and avidly gobble up anything we can find of yours. My oldest, who is 9, is lucky enough to go to a dual immersion school – learning all subjects in English and Spanish. Finally – here is my question. We have a bit of a hard time getting him to read books in Spanish for fun. He said he would read anything of yours that is in Spanish. I have been trolling various used book sites and our library but have not had any luck finding any spanish translations – have any been done? If not, that is a shame. Thank you for your help and for all your wonderful stories. We also quite adore your essay on Sandwiches, that we heard in a podcast last year.
Daniel replies:
Thank you for all the nice remarks. Getting books published in translation is pretty much out of this author's hands--in fact when independent translators come forward wanting to do it, the publishers tend not to cooperate. Some of my books do appear in other languages, but how that comes about is a mystery to me. There is something with a bit of Spanish planned for a forthcoming podcast on this website, and having heard it you may want to get hold of the book, but there isn't a whole lot of meat. Your son appears to go to a cool school.
Diane Nosnik
Post #3037 – 20120712
July 12, 2012
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
My husband is a Mexican Jew who is fluent in Yiddish! You can imagine how much we have enjoyed reading Beautiful Yetta to our grandaughter! And although he is Mexican, he does an outstanding Puerto Rican accent!!! I thought you might enjoy hearing him read it! If so, please send us an email and he will email you a reading-accents and all! Thanks for the wonderful book! We are looking forward to more yiddish/spanish books! thanks, Diane Nosnik
Daniel replies:
Oh, send it here to this website so everyone can enjoy it! Another Yetta story with Yiddish and Spanish (also English), is even now being beautifully illustrated by the Great Jill.
Stay tuned to hear this special rendition of """"Beautiful Yetta"""" on the Pinkwater Podcast! -- Ed
Lupe
Post #3040 – 20120706
July 6, 2012
Hi!!! I read about you at class! Btw
your famous!!! Can you really talk back to me because if you can tell me
something!! Btw I need to ask you some questions soooooooooooo talk
back!!!;) thx
Daniel replies:
Yes, I can really talk back--I am a real live person and not a robot or anything like that.
Cordelia Sipper
Post #3033 – 20120627
June 27, 2012
Hello Mr. Pinkwater,
I am so happy to have found a way to contact you.
When I was little, my father (who is a rare book dealer and very fond of good literature) would read me Blue Moose all the time. It has been my great fortune to somehow hang on to that book for many years, and now read it to my own children (4 and 6.) Every time I read Blue Moose I am overcome with such wonderful feelings. Memories, yes- from my father reading it to me. But also appreciation for the sweetness, the funniness, and the reminder that magic does happen.
I love you for writing that book. Thank you. It is well worn, and I shall always have it.
XO
C.
Daniel replies:
You know, I think my zen is pretty good. I must have managed to keep my ego from overtaking my artist-ness, because receiving a statement like this still confuses and bewilders me. In a pleasant way, of course. Thank you.
Hans Learsi
Post #3034 – 20120627
June 27, 2012
While driving my Volvo c303 in my full Ottoman Chief regalia in New Jersey yesterday,
I saw a newspaper stand and stopped for a moment and couldn't help but notice how much the avocado crisis of 1989 is still having an emotional impact on today's politics. Which naturally begs the question: When choosing tube socks for a formal event such as a wedding,
should the male guest choose blue stripes on white or the other way around? It's jsust killing me, if you follow.
Daniel replies:
In today's enlightened fashion climate socks at a wedding are optional, (except for the rabbi, if one is officiating). I would look for vertical striped tube socks for the slimming effect.
Michael Levine
Post #3035 – 20120627
June 27, 2012
You may enjoy this piece about a little girl who has been called "The Next Jackson Pollack".
I thoroughly enjoyed, and have been continuously been inspired by your piece "Whose Little Jackson Pollack Are You?" that I read many years ago.
When I was about 7 years old and in art class, I was asked to paint something, and being raised by parents who admired Pollack, Kandinsky, Miro, Dali, and Picasso; I began to throw and dribble paint on a big piece of paper. I was stopped by the teacher and told that that was not acceptable. When I told my parents , they came to school and gave the "art" teacher" a piece of their minds.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/aelita-andre_n_1601021.html
Daniel replies:
I dislike when adults get all adult-like excited about kids doing art instead of treating it like the perfectly natural thing it is. I used to make a special paint-throwing corner for the kids in art classes I ""taught."" My finest moment came when a kid asked me, ""Pinkwater, are you a real art teacher?"" ""What is your opinion?"" I asked the kid. ""I think you are just someone who likes paintings kids make.""
Mary Jean Mork
Post #3026 – 20120621
June 21, 2012
You once commented that you never wrote a really important book. I have to disagree with you, respectfully.
My son, Zach, now 25, 6ft 3 and studying electrical engineering was once a 2nd grader, always interested in science and how the world worked, but not so interested in sitting down to read about it. He was (and still is) very smart, but felt bad about all his classmates reading "chapter books" while he was still muddling through picture books.
And then we found Blue Moose at a little book store. Zach loved that book and read it all by himself – his first chapter book. He went on to read many of your books, appreciating the humor and nerdy point of view. They made reading fun and opened a whole world to him.
So, you see, you were wrong. That book was really important and we thank you.
Daniel replies:
There are a lot of comments ascribed to me that I never made...or made while talking through my hat, and paying no attention to what I was saying. If I actually said that, it is possible that I was falsely trying to seem modest. Maybe I meant that books are not important until someone reads them--then the sort of thing that happened to Zach can happen. It is also the reason I prefer to write books meant for children rather than other types of people...any one of them can turn out to be the book whereby someone discovers they possess the power of reading, and that's important.
Max Beasley
Post #3012 – 20120613
June 13, 2012
I am nearly finished with Lizard Music, the first book written by you that I have read, and it has struck me how fantastic the book is. On par with my favorite, Catcher In the Rye. I have heard that there is a film version in production and I was wondering if that is true and if so how the progress on it is going. Also, as we get to the real question, I am 16 years old and an aspiring director and current film fanatic (both watching and making). I am wondering, what are your top 5 favorite films and why? Thank you so much for what you do and I look forward to enjoying more of your work soon.
Yours,
Max Beasley
Denver, Colorado
Daniel replies:
Coincidentally, Lizard Music is the first book written by me that I have written. Assuming I learned and made progress, you may find that some subsequent book of mine surpasses Catcher in Rye. I do not consider myself a first-class writer, but in my opinion all of them do. Later, when you are a director, you will find out how much rumors of film production are worth.
yesenia garcia
Post #2996 – 20120608
June 8, 2012
i LOVE your books i have a question….. how did you find things to write about?
Daniel replies:
You can write about ANYTHING! That's the fun of it.
Nathaniel S. Rounds, Patron of Chickens
Post #2991 – 20120608
June 8, 2012
Ritz Bros or Marx Bros–who had the funny?
Daniel replies:
They stole everything from the Smith Brothers.
Lisa Kelley
Post #2983 – 20120606
June 6, 2012
Hi Daniel,
I just wanted you to know how much my kids, ages 6&8, love the Neddiad trilogy. We are reading it for the 2nd time to my 6 year old.
Lisa
Daniel replies:
Trilogy. Of course Bushman Lives, now being serialized on this very website, is related, so that would make it a quadrilogy, quartet, or tetrology, and Bushman Lives is related to Lizard Music, so those would constitute a duology. Or should all the books together be considered a pentolgy? And I did plan to write a continuation of Bushman Lives, but the publisher refused to commit, and I can't afford to write such a book on spec. I suggest everything be lumped under the term """"clusterbook.""""
More interesting than Greco-Roman categorizing is the fact that your kids are 6 and 8. The books are considered by the experts, to whom one should pay very little attention, as """"YA,"""" or possibly mid-grade verging on young adult. It's fairly common for kids in the single digits to enjoy novels of mine, (as it is for creaky adults to appreciate the picture books). When you run out of my stuff, you can try Dickens on your offspring...and they will probably hit Dostoevsky by age 10. When they're your age, and I'm in the county home, they'll be sending me emails about how much they like Bad Bears go Visiting.
Mark Miller
Post #2982 – 20120606
June 6, 2012
Here I am at the ripe old age (at least according to some) of 77 and just finished reading
Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars. I did this after picking up a copy at a thrift store and decided it was worth the $1.50 that it cost after having read a book of your short stories and having heard you at various times on NPR.
The book and its characters were real grabbers and was difficult to stop reading, but necessary for the purposes of eating and sleeping.
In any event, it's on to more Pinkwater Phables and many thanks for your humor.
Daniel replies:
Another young adult reader! Welcome!
