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.
