Daniel M. Kanemoto

January 1, 1997

Mr. Pinkwater,

Wow. I actually get to ask Daniel Pinkwater a qestion. This is… unbelievable. After reading some of the comments on this page, I’m discovering that my story is strangly similiar to many other people who’ve written you — as a second-grader in the middle of Wisconsin, I found your books in the school library and was hooked (first, it was THE WORMS OF KUKUKALIMA and then, of course, LIZARD MUSIC). I haven’t quit since.

This is actually the SECOND letter I wrote to you — the last time, I used a pencil and that really soft, gray paper they only seem to give to kids in elementary school (great for crayons!) Unfortunatly, I sent the letter to the wrong address — somewhere in Alaska, if I remember correctly — and it got returned, unread. But the letter is still in my scrapbook at home, and it reminds me of what it was like to be a kid, full of imagination, re-reading LIZARD MUSIC obsessivly (in fact, my nickname in the small town I grew up in remains “The Chicken Man”).

But enough rambling — I’ve got a question! I’ve since left Wisconsin (which I miss terribly), and now I live in New York City, where I attend NYU film school. I’m working on my second film, and my question is: would it be possible to adapt a Daniel Pinkwater story for a strictly NON PROFIT student film? Let me know – I think many of your stories are cinematic, and imagining the world of Daniel Pinkwater is one of the main reasons I’ve fallen in love with the movies as well as reading.

Thanks for listening,

Daniel M. Kanemoto

 I have sent you email directly...so nobody who comes here will ever know my response to your query.