Amelia Carlisle

March 7, 2013

Dear Daniel Manus Pinkwater. I loved reading your books as a kid at the

Alexander Mitchell Public Library in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Loved Big Orange Splot, Fat Men from Space, and when I was old enough to read it, the

young adult novel, The Wuggie Norple Story, which, as I recall, had one of the greatest plots of any book, mixing adventure with romance. No wonder

James Wood mentioned it several times both in his reviews and on The Charlie Rose Show. I will never forget Wuggie Norple, the talking grapefruit from Puerto Rico, trapped in a whale’s stomach with a city planner from South Dakota. The grapefruit writes a love note using a flashlight, a crayon, a candy wrapper and a bottle. He writes: %u201CDear Isadora, I find your eye sockets to be a wondrous amusement park of neo-plastic pleasures and oncogenic delights.We may not ever meet again at the fruit stand or anywhere else. But that%u2019s okay. It was, after all, just a moment in time.%u201D And then he dies. I cry even now. I want to thank you for this.

This too.