Karl Butcher

May 12, 2008

I just want to give props to Daniel Pinkwater.

I think I’ve only read one of your books, “Alan Mendelson, boy from mars.”

I read it when I was in 4th grade, and now I’m 32.

It affected me greatly as a child, especially as I was in a new elementary school just about every year as my parents moved around a ton.

But more than that, probably no other book has affected my reading habits as much as that one. It introduced me to science fiction. I’ve read tons of sci-fi since then, and loved the genre more than anything, though I read a lot of science non-fiction these days as well.

I just want to say thank you for that story.

Also, when I was still in fourth grade, I tried to channel “state 26” myself, and one day, while on the school bus, I willed the bus to crash. It was a long ride, so I spent a lot of time just mentally yelling at the bus to crash. AND IT DID! Thankfully, the damage was minor and nobody got hurt.

I was never able to repeat my results with further experiments. But it sure freaked me out then…

You tried to crash more buses???? This is why I left out one essential ingredient when I wrote about State 26.