Deborah
Post #2526 – 20090812
August 12, 2009
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
When I was a wee lass of maybe 6 years, I took a fateful trip to the local library with my parents and carefully selected Ducks! from the shelf. We took it home and my mom and sister and I read it aloud. My father returned home from his university classes later that day and we read it to him too, and it immediately became canonized as the best book written for children and adults. We would later give that book over and over to other families.
Now, 20 years later, I’m looking for the book again, which is now out of print and very expensive. I have found a few people selling the book online starting at over $80 and going up to nearly $200. While it’s a deserving price for such a brilliant and — dare I say — subversive book, it makes me sad that I cannot afford to share it. Any suggestions?
Forever trusting of talking ducks,
Deborah
Daniel replies:
Oh my! Webmaster Ed tells me that if you go to xlibris.com and type ""ducks!"" as a search term in the bookstore, you will find the book is available @ $14.99!
Susie Wilburn
Post #2525 – 20090807
August 7, 2009
Mr. Pinkwater,
My husband is an elementary school librarian and has read you book “The Big Orange Splot” to his children at his school for many years.
This summer we need desperately to paint our 100 year old house and picked our palette from the daylillies in our yard. Needless to say, the colors are quite a stir in our neighborhood and when the color “laughing orange” went onto the house he kept quoting your book. Of course, I hadn’t read it and when we were finished with the house he bought 5 copies, 4 to give as gifts and one for us to have on hand as an explanation of our color scheme. I wanted to send you a photo of the house but your site doesn’t have that capability so I thought I would share the story with you. “My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams,” Mr. Plumbean said.
Thanks for a wonderful book! And for giving us permission to be different in our very conservative neighborhood.
Susie Wilburn
Daniel replies:
Some time after the publication of The Big Orange Splot Jill and I decided to paint the house we then lived in, a nice cheap Dutch colonial on a little street in a suburban village. We thought a deep barn-red would look right. We hired a good painter, and he properly first painted the house with an undercoat which was white--but for some reason related to the craft of housepainting he added a bit of the final color to the undercoat paint, resulting in a pink house. Then the painter went away for a while to do other things. The neighbors were concerned, and one in particular was more than concerned. He was wild. Then someone gave him a copy of the book, and he became more than wild. We could hear him moaning and talking to God three houses away. I'm sure you are aware that Victorian houses were frequently painted in riotous colors, also Greek temples. Perfectly conservative those Victorians and ancient Greeks. Thanks for liking the book.
Brad Sondahl
Post #2523 – 20090802
August 2, 2009
Having worked too hard as a children’s librarian for the last year, a gig now ended, only recently did I find time to read The Yggyssey, clearly an instant classic, if difficult to spell correctly. I imagine in the year 2121, if anyone still has any fun, students will be required to read the Yggyssey and the Neddiad. It will no doubt be available in an annotated edition, since by then many may not get the many literary allusions, such as the Wanda gag, which I in my childish way, did immediately. Maybe you next want to tackle Shakespeare, such as Omelet, the Chicken Disaster of Denmark.
Daniel replies:
How can it be fun if they're required to read it? Annotated? Nisht du gedacht!
Frog
Post #2522 – 20090731
July 31, 2009
Sir Pinkwater,
The eve of the apocalypse draws near! Of course, thy absolution of the time coordinates be welcom’d. Thou art invited to the coming of Magus (transportation thine) on the third day of May, year 2500AD.
It is mine humble request that thou courier a script of “Alan Mendelsohn” to any time in the year of 1999AD, as it were lost in mine continuum.
A thousand “thank-yous” from the children at Chandler Elementary School, located in Charleston, West Virginia, circa 1991AD.
Prithee well,
Simply, Frog
Daniel replies:
Frog? Is this you, Frog? You who borrowed money from me on another existential plane, and then disappeared? Wow! I thought I would never hear from you again. I'm forwarding your email to the Time Police.
Dan
Post #2521 – 20090729
July 29, 2009
I already asked a question on behalf of my dog, so this one is from me:
Also regarding the Blue Moose:
Did the Moose mingle?
Thanks,
Dan
–Please Note–
I have to fawn: You are the exemplar for what may be the most important quality in a writer of any stripe…many can be funny…several can be entertaining…but scant few writers have the ability to be interesting (you got all three, Mr. Pinkwater).
Daniel replies:
Moose are not known for mingling. I myself have mingled, insofar as that is possible, with moose. I found it exciting, and interesting. My dogs at the time, Malamutes, found it terrifying and would have nothing to do with it. They may have known more than I did. You have to fawn? What are you, a deer? And why would we want to know such personal stuff?
Susan Johnston
Post #2519 – 20090728
July 28, 2009
I wanted to let you know that I am planning a Literacy Camp at Goshen Lane Elementary School around your book, The Big Orange Splot. The week before school starts (August 17th thru the 21st), we have 25 students registered. Each student will get a copy of your book and we will base the activities of the five day camp around the theme of your book. It is a charming story and teaches a good lesson. I have so enjoyed planning this with two other teachers. On the final day, we will put on a performance for parents and friends.
Thanks for writing such a wonderful story.
Daniel replies:
Thank for liking my wonderful story! My finest readers have always been in Columbus, Ohio!
Dan
Post #2520 – 20090728
July 28, 2009
My dog, who is a terrible typist, has asked me to submit this question to you:
My valet/driver plays your audio books and podcasts on the car stereo system. I greatly enjoy them.
We heard the Blue Moose today. It was terreific. It made me hungry.
So, you got recipies for the Clam Chowder or the Gingerbread?
Many thanks in advance,
Shlomo
(via Dan)
Daniel replies:
Gingerbread, Dan is on his own. But for clam chowder I suggest he get his hands on a cookbook written by the fine movie actor Vincent Price. His recipe is the closest to the stupendous clam chowder I experienced from the kitchen of the real-life Mr. Breton all those years ago.
Dave
Post #2518 – 20090722
July 22, 2009
So whatever happened to Navin Diebold?
If your answer is a Clarence Yojimbo-like “read my book,” I’ll get the message.
Daniel replies:
Navin Diebold is a fictional character, so nothing happened to him other than what I wrote. Of course I could write more about him, and then what I wrote could be said to have happened to him. The real person he was based on had various things happen to him, including death, after which, if anything happened to him I would not be in a position to know.
Frank Davenport
Post #2517 – 20090720
July 20, 2009
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have just started reading five novels to my eight year old son, and he is enjoying himself tremendously. I read three chapters to him tonight, and he was begging me to continue. I could only get him to sleep with the promise of reading more tommorrow morning when he wakes up.
I was overwhelmed with emotions after leaving him, as my mother read these same stories to me and my sisters as we were growing up, and I loved every minute of them. And why not? Your books are filled with characters who seem taken straight out of my own childhood. I have personally consumed red death chili at some wild bacchanal parties in the late seventies when I was just a boy, and your stories and their characters make me feel right at home. I am thrilled that my little boy can enjoy them too.
Your book transported me tonight back to a magical part of my past, and I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart. From a 41 year old man who once was a little boy from Barrytown, who was carried in diapers the ten miles of so to the second day of Woodstock by his father, and who had larger than life neighbors all around him that were truly Kings of Men. Many are gone now, but they are living onward somewhere deep and sacred in my heart. I still have no idea what this life thing is really all about, but I can tell you this. The amazing stories you tell and the true magic that they hold are resonating through my family, from my mother to me and my sisters and down to my children, and that matters, in a real and meaningful way. I praise you with great praise. Thank you.
Daniel replies:
Did you know that I once lived in Barrytown for a summer, and knew some of those great people? Thanks for your kind words.
Jennnifer Pierce
Post #2516 – 20090717
July 17, 2009
Victor’s hero Walter Cronkite passed away. Lizard Music was the very first thing I thought of when I read the news…..
-from a die hard Pinkwater fan
Daniel replies:
He was a hero to all of us.
Douglas Speer
Post #2515 – 20090715
July 15, 2009
Dear Mr. Pinkwater, I’ve always enjoyed listening to you on NPR, especially your “duets” with Scott Simon.
I need some advice. Several years ago I wrote a childrens book about a big striped cat and how he saved a grieving young womans life. That manuscript was produced one winter as I was driving a big, giant truck around the U.S.. It has languished in my files for seven years.
I pulled it out the other day and read it, cover to cover. It’s really pretty good.
My question is: How do I get it reviewed and hopefully published? As you know; if you don’t have an agent, you won’t get published and if you haven’t been published, you won’t get an agent.
How does one overcome this catch 22?
Any light you could shed on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards, Doug
Daniel replies:
After pornography, the most popular topic on the internet is how to get published. At last count there were 4,000,647 sites dealing with this subject. What is more, every person posting knows more about it than I do, has fresher information than mine, (most of which dates back to the early 1970s when I clicked as a writer and started selling), and possibly gives a hoot. Good luck.
Jon F. Merz
Post #2514 – 20090711
July 11, 2009
Dear Mr. Pinkwater:
I read Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars many, many years back and it has always stayed with me as one of my most-beloved books. Unfortunately, my copy eventually grew so tattered that it somehow disappeared ages ago. However, today I found a copy of 5 Novels and to my incredible delight, saw the novel reprinted therein. I spent today strolling down memory lane as I once again visited with Leonard and Alan. The story is just as fun and utterly awesome as I remember it. And to my delight, I found I experienced that same emotional connection of not wanting to let go at the end that I’d had so long ago.
Thank you so much for writing such a great tale. And please add my vote to the others who hope that you will write a sequel to this fantastic story. It is utterly selfish of me to wish it, but I would treasure another adventure with Leonard and Alan.
Best Regards,
Jon F. Merz
Daniel replies:
Your preference is noted. Meanwhile, there have been a few novels since A. Mendelsohn, which, had you read them as a child, might have meant as much to you. You can still enjoy them, though they can never become childhood favorites for obvious reasons. Thanks for your kind words.
Caroline Rose
Post #2513 – 20090708
July 8, 2009
Hi Mr. Pinkwater:
Just wanted to tell you that Henrietta has kept us entertained during our summer road trips. When I found Looking for Bobowicz and The Hoboken Chicken Emergency on CD, my boys couldn’t remember any of your books. I reminded them of your blueberry muffin-eating life guard polar bear, and they were ready to take the CDs home.
Glad I finally picked up one of your books after years of NPR.
Thanks for making our vacation pleasant!
Caroline
Daniel replies:
And thank you for making my non-vacation pleasant!
Anonymous
Post #2512 – 20090702
July 2, 2009
Hey yo Danny P,
Check it out man. So it’s like me and you, me and you right? And we’re checkin the scene for some fly honey dips, but the whole scene was a lie man!
Turns out, you were in a coma for the last forty years.
Turns out, the internet was never invented.
Turns out, nobody even gave a hoot.
So what did you do dude? It’s a bummer, I think I’m spending my vacation on the beach. Life is hard in your drag clothes, but it only gets harder. That’s what I tell em, but they never listen. Anyway, I gotta go soon.
But a real question for ya bro, real talk, when’s the new Snarkout Boys novel commin out man? It’s totally unrad how you left us hangin, kinda cold even. I was interested.
Now that Billy Mays is dead, do you plan about writing on death and stuff? Looking back, it seems like something you avoided, was that a conscious decision?
Alright, it’s all good though.
Peace,
You Know Dude
Daniel replies:
Rabbi Goldfarb! It's incredible to hear from you, especially since you were already pretty old when you officiated at my bar-mitzvah! I am so honored you remember me, and I want you to know I have always followed your advice about staying away from you-know-what.
