Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
My son is writing an essay about you. Would you give him three important dates in your life (i.e. first book, marriage,…)? (I’ve been searching online but so far I couldn’t find anything!)
Thank you very much,
Huy Nguyen
September 1959
June 1964
October 1969
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I’ve always been a big fan of your work, particularly the title story in “Fish Whistle.” Today, while listening to NPR’s “Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me,” my family discovered a story about a group of scientists who have “[trained] fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time.” This concept seems very familiar. Check it out:
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080326/ap_on_re_us/pavlov_s_fish
You should sue.
Sincerely,
Caitlin M.
The fish should sue! I hope similar mis-education is not being worked on students, fish or otherwise, at the University of California, or any other institution.
A long time ago I ate lunch at the (real life) Magic Moscow for many years. More recently I’ve been working in midtown Manhattan. I once saw a guy selling ice cream from a truck who was wearing an $80,000 watch, and not a counterfeit one either. I got to know the ice cream truck guys a little bit and a lot of it is about fighting for their corner space and warding off competitors. I never found out anything that would explain the watch.
That was a few years ago. Given the trend in fine jewelry prices the watch would be worth even more now.
My watch is solar-powered, waterproof, shockproof, receives a nightly radio signal from the Atomic Clock in Boulder, Colorado, so it is accurate to within a ten-thousandth of a second, has a little light in it, has a calendar that shows day, date and year, and adjusts for leap years, also a stopwatch, and it cost $35. With the $79,965 I saved, I bought an enormous quantity of ice cream.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Pinkwater,
I love your Werewolf Club books! Please make more than four. I can’t wait to read other books of yours. I am in second grade so these are easy reader books but they are still great. My favorite character is Billy Furball because I like what his mom puts on his sandwiches. So please write more Werewolf Club books.
Sincerely,
Dianne
I'm glad you like the Werewolf Club books. I think there are five in all. I might write more sometime...or something else. I like Billy Furball because I know people who are just like him.
I am writing to inform my childhood hero that I am now in Madison, Wisconsin studying astrophysics and send my kindest regards from the land of snow and cheese. I would like to to offer to treat Mr. Pinkwater and Jill to the dairy product of their choice should they ever happen to pass through the area.
Best always,
-M. Wojtaszek
Mmmm. Snow and cheese--an unbeatable combination. I fondly remember the cheese-cones at the county fair. And a melted snow on rye is always a treat. I, myself, once visited Madison, Wisconsin, and took note of a large university, which I suppose is still there. The people were kind to me, and dairy products were offered in abundance. It was about that time I saw that it would be my destiny to be a childhood hero. Naturally, I am proud of you.
I love your books!!!!!!I am your bigest fan!!!!!!!You should write a book about pie loving llamas!!!!Can I have an autograph?????????????????
All the llamas I have ever net liked turnovers and crullers, also muffins--I didn't know they loved pie. Send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and I will send you an autograph.
Hello! I am a 23 year old English teacher (7th grade) and I grew up with your books. As a kid, I would spend hours at the library grabbing random books off the shelf and reading them. Anyway, I read a book as a kid that I am 99% sure is one of yours, but no one can tell me the title of this book. It’s about a boy who travels with his uncle in a RV shaped like a pickle, and they go across the country going to every fast food restaurant in chain. The restaurant has a slogan that went “Cluck cluck, it’s in the bag!” There was a witch who could make their toes hurt. Anyway, if it’s a story of yours, then you’ll know it by now. Title??
Kiera
Not mine, but come back and tell us the title when you find out--I want to read it!
I’m a longtime fan of yours, Mr. Pinkwater, and I recently became interested in the art of graphic novelizations. Unfortunately, my ideas aren’t as creative as yours. Would you be offended if I were to adapt Alan Mendelsohn from its original novel-format? I could send you a finished copy before I showed it to friends, or strangers if I don’t have any friends.
the drawing-not-thinking man,
Josef Sipkins
I don't know--would you be offended if I sued you? I suggest you graphicize Treasure Island or some other book whose author is past needed it to contribute to his economic survival. Thanks for asking first.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have recently broken my wrist but that does not keep me from reading your boks. I bought the Neddiad and I love it. My favorite line is “Somebody eat that kid”.
-Daniel Yim a.k.a Bassoonfreak007
While your wrist is mending you might see if you can find a baritone harmonica and learn to play it one-handed. If you get good at it you will be the one called when the orchestra wants to play a piece that calls for a baritone harmonica. Hint: use chapstick before playing the overture to William Tell.
Daniel,
We have two 2 1/2 year olds and read The Orange Splot. I am curious whether the book has any relationship to the house in Upstate New York that was painted much like Plumbean’s (because he was angry at the town – Hoosick Falls or nearby). it stayed that way for years.
Thanks. We enjoy the book.
Mike, Amanda Jake&Becca
None whatsoever. I live in nearly upstate New York, and am familiar with the mentality you describe. Mr. Plumbean was not like that.
Dear Mr Pinkwater,
I love your books because
they are funny and good. I like second grade ape
because the gorilla goes to school. Once
my class studied you. Me and my teacher
love you!
Lukas
I love readers like you because they are smart and good. I also like gorillas a lot. I am happy to learn that I was studied--it is good that you are learning to be psychiatrists in first grade!
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I am a first-year reading teacher in a high-poverty, low-test score district in western New York state. Motivating students to WANT to read was a hiccup in my new career…that is until I stumbled upon one of your stories in a 3rd grade reading anthology “Guys From Space.” I thought the story had the perfect quirkiness to it and insisted the classroom teacher do the follow-up activity which was “How to Make a Root beer Float.” What a hit! We dressed up with funny hats and had on lab aprons and made root beer floats with the class. Since then I have sought out more books to use with my remedial readers. They love you and want to read and read….So far we’ve read and trully enjoyed The Neddiad, all of the Blue Moose stories, Guys From Space, Looking for Bobiwicz and a few more short stories. Thank you for writing and we look forward to discovering more of your stories. I certainly appreciate your website where I can find listening activities for the students. We all love to hear you read!
Thanks so much,
Ms. CodyAnne Weise
This is neat! I'm no reading specialist, but I think if you go light on the dead-and-alive reading materials and start making a list of engaging and enjoyable books, (mine and others), you'll continue to get results. I try to write books I would have liked reading as a kid--and that seems to do the trick. Tell the kids hello from me, and thanks for reading my stuff.
Dear Rosenwasser:
I humbly apologize if I offended you by mentioning that diminutive sf writer with the high I.Q., but the expression “you people” should probably be retired until it comes from the mouth (or other orifice) of an extra-terrestrial, robot, or genetically modified Earth animal.
I am especially grateful to you since I met my wife in 1983 partly because she had volunteered to read *Lizard Music* to the children in my class. Of course, I immediately fell in love with her weird taste, and for several nights tried in vain to tune my old tv between stations in the hope of catching some Reynolds playing reptilian rock.
Did you,in fact, visit Los Angeles in the fifties, as suggested by The Neddiad? It reminded me of my elementary school years in Beverly Hills with the children of actors.
Best Wishes,
Howard Cowan
In some kind of mix-up the esteemed webmaster reversed the replies attached to your post and the one in immediate propinquity. I simply meant to indicate in an offhand way that Mr. E's fans and adherents dote upon him, love him, think about him constantly, revere and admire his literary works, espouse his philosophy, and are wild-eyed, unrestrained in their enthusiasm, and rightly so. But torchlight parades, drums, jazz bands frenzied speeches and pyrotechnics should be taken to the websites, dedicated to the purpose, and possibly provided by the College of Miracles. This one is for quiet contemplation and scholarly exchange, capishe? And how do you know that I am not an extra-terrestrial, robot, or genetically modified Earth animal?
Dear Daniel:
I am a retiring (but not shy) physics and chem lab teacher to small wombats, grandson of a Romanian-Jew bookbinder,
husband to the Queen Seraphim of Library Goddesses, servant to two furry canines from the pound, and your humble, etc.. . .
In the faint chance that you haven’t seen it yet, “The Rabbi’s Cat” (a graphic novel) is worthy of your attention.
In a less ambitious vein, try an episode of “The Secret Show” on Cartoon Network–especially the “frame” program–“The Fluffy Bunny Show.” Seriously giggleworthy.
Good to hear from Harlan. He needs to write the screenplay to “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke, and Ridley Scott needs to direct.
Howard Cowan
You people have your own website, do you not?
Mr. Pinkwater,
I’m sending this on to you. It’s a fragment from a much longer post of mine posted over on Harlan’s board (The Art Deco Dining Pavilion) on Tuesday morning. I have not included the full post because it contains many meta-fictions and R rated in-jokes not appropriate to some of the folks who might post here. The Pinkwater-centric section is as follows;
… But what I forgot to tell Harlan while on the phone with him was that I snagged that Pinkwater exchange from a few days back and I’m wondering if careful readers (nany thanks to a friend for pointing this out to me – said friend has wisely fled this country – and then two others) that Mr. D.M. Pinkwasserschlosser has **CUT** our beloved hero in his response with the surgical placement of a hyphen. This is JUST the sort of sneaky thing one might expect from the man behind the HOBOKEN CHICKEN CONSPIRACY, the sort of horror the creator of I WAS A 2ND GRADE WEREWOLF might inflict. But since I’m a “big” fan of LIZARD MUSIC and FAT MEN FROM OUTER SPACE and BLUE MOOSE and others, I’m just going to stand back and admire this clash of titans from afar. A WAY FAR OVER HERE.
Good Morning.
– Barney Dannelke
Another one! What are we, Harlan's other mailbox?
