Meredith Bird Miller

May 2, 2000

Dear Mr. Pinkwater,

I am a children’s librarian here in the great state of New Hampshire. I have two sons, one age 9 and one age 4. We borrowed Wuggie Norple from my library and enjoyed it so much! It is a paperback Scholastic version. I have been practicing telling the story because I like it so much and my four year old keeps asking for it and I can’t keep the book at home, because then, what kind of children’s librarian would I be? Anyway, I would like to write to you and ask your permission to tell this story (after all, it does have a copyright and an author…) because I think it is terrific! It is a lot of fun to tell and I have it down pretty much, except I need to be able to make an “elephant noise.” Now since this is “Laughing Gas Alligator” we are talking about, I could probably come up with something…

I am hoping to develop a program of “cat stories” that I could tell in my library or in other venues(I would like to become a storyteller to help bring in a little more so I can stay a children’s librarian!) Please let me know where I can send you an actual letter on paper. Thanks so much.

Sincerely,

Meredith Bird Miller

P.S. We enjoyed hearing you on “CarTalk”…it’s my favorite radio show.

You may tell Wuggie Norple, or any story of mine, as part of your regular library work, of course--as long as you don't tape it. If you are planning to give paid performances, you may go ahead and use stories of mine, (giving me credit as author, naturally), but again you may not make tapes of the stories, or of your performances including my stories. I'd like a letter from you, agreeing to these conditions, and also agreeing that you will stop using my material if I ask you to, (in the event that I sell rights to some studio or the like).