AmooseHunt

January 11, 1999

Hello. I am one of 13 people whose AOL profiles contain your name (only 3 of whom have posted on this site). Before I read Young Adult Novel, my name was Amos Hunt, which made my screen name seem very clever. Now, however, I am Charles the Cat, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anymore. I kept it because I’m too lazy to change it. Most of my lunch table joined the Dada Ducks last year after I let the former Kenny Bouma (Now Venustiano Carranza (President of Mexico)) borrow 5 Novels. In addition to the names we stole from your book, there’s Cherry Lantifreeze, the Third-to-Last Quinchy, Hemiolan Artifice, Jimmy the Moose, How-Do-You-Do?, Chink Monkey, Bi[g Ugly] Llama (this one requires the cooperation of a second party to pronounce), and Fat(e) Q. Some people who are not officially Dada Ducks but should be are Blue Turds (two certain evil persons have insisted that she not be allowed to join), Fullofoman, and the Queen of the Pooftas (She used to be Bruth, but she threatened to be “no more than civil to me” if I didn’t stop). After almost a year of being Ducks, we have no substantial dada activities to our credit, but we very frequently discuss the possibility of turning into trees someday, and next year we fully intend to be rejected as an act in the school variety show.

Sir, I love your books. It disgusts me that so many are ignorant of your work. I sneak them into unsuspecting children’s book bags at the library, and constantly bother everyone I know to read them sometime. Wether you meant to or not, you have changed my life and many others. Thank you.

You know, YOUNG ADULT NOVEL, as presented in 5 NOVELS, and originally a T.Y. Crowell hardcover, also exists in an expanded paperback form in two editions, trade, and mass-market, both titled YOUNG ADULTS and both published by Tor Books, and now out of print. These books contain the original YOUNG ADULT NOVEL, a sequel, DEAD END DADA, and THE DADA BOYS IN COLLITCH, said to be the first chapter of a novel. The trade paperback has some other stuff too. So, now you know. Life is more complicated than you dreamed.