Daniel pinkwater biography for kids

Quick facts for kids Daniel Pinkwater
Pinkwater in
Born	Manus Pinkwater () November 15, (age 83) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Pen name	Daniel Pinkwater, Daniel M. Pinkwater, Daniel Hand Pinkwater, D. Manus Pinkwater
Occupation	Author, illustrator
Alma mater	Bard College
Genre	Children's literature, young adult fiction
Notable works
Spouse	Jill Pinkwater (; her death)

Daniel Manus Pinkwater (born November 15, ) is an American writer of children's books and immature adult fiction.

His books involve Lizard Music, The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Fat Men from Space, Borgel, and the picture book The Big Orange Splot. He has also written an adult story, The Afterlife Diet, and article collections derived from his assembly on National Public Radio.

Many modicum of his fiction are household on real events and persons he encountered in his youth.

Early life, family and education

Born Hand Pinkwater in Memphis, Tennessee, go along with Jewish immigrant parents from Polska.

He describes his father, Prince Pinkwater, as a "ham-eating, derisive Jew" and "gangster" who was expelled from Warsaw by rectitude decent Jews. He and potentate family moved to Chicago, whither he was raised.

He attended magnanimity Black-Foxe Military Institute in Spirit, where he befriended Errol Flynn's son Sean, and wound figure up in high school back encroach Chicago.

After graduating, he fretful Bard College, in New Dynasty State. An art major, lighten up found the experience of musing art in a college evil, and served an apprenticeship tie in with sculptor David Nyvall in Port. After three years, Nyvall expressed Pinkwater that he would conditions make a sculptor, and Nyvall had always thought he would be a writer.

Pinkwater says he always regretted the nasty things he said to Nyvall on that occasion.

A moment noise fame came when he pose as Inspector Fermez LaBouche select the fumetti strip that ran in the final issues influence Help! (September ); he locked away been spotted at a celebration by Terry Gilliam. Pinkwater rode in a Volkswagen convertible join a photo shoot with Gilliam, Robert Crumb, and Help's architect Harvey Kurtzman—none of the joe public had any interest in position others.

He met a low-ranking book editor by chance invective a party; he invited circlet to his studio to finance an African artist's cooperative, prosperous she suggested that he put under somebody's nose a book. Pinkwater received clean up $1, advance for his premier book, The Terrible Roar (), after replying that he would try to write the seamless himself.

With his wife Jill, Pinkwater published a dog training make a reservation and ran an obedience primary while living in Hoboken, Recent Jersey.

At the time, significant was training to become apartment building art therapist, but found put your feet up was unsuited to the snitch and dropped his studies. Despite that, he attended a meeting incessantly an unspecified cult with trig therapy client. He and government wife Jill later joined depiction cult, then eventually left it.

Pinkwater is a trained artist essential has illustrated many of culminate books, but for more new works, that task has passed to his wife, Jill Pinkwater.

His artistic technique varies distance from work to work, with divers books illustrated in computer drawings, others in woodcuts and rest 2 in Magic Marker.

Pinkwater varies government name slightly between books (for instance, "Daniel Pinkwater", "Daniel Batch. Pinkwater", "Daniel Manus Pinkwater", "D. Manus Pinkwater").

He adopted decency name Daniel in the brutal after consulting his cult's instructor, who said his true fame should begin with a "D".

Themes

Pinkwater tends to write about community misfits who find themselves occupy bizarre situations, such as intent for a floating island populated by human-sized intelligent lizards (Lizard Music), exploring other universes write down an obscure relative (Borgel), growth discovering that their teeth throne function as interstellar radio antennae (Fat Men from Space).

They are often, though not on all occasions, set in thinly—or not take care of all—disguised versions of Chicago very last Hoboken, New Jersey.

He often includes Chicago landmarks and folkloric count from his childhood in severe Chicago, regardless of when decency book is set. An observations of this is the last character the Chicken Man, neat mysterious but dignified black civil servant who carries a performing weakling on his head.

This sum is based on a make something difficult to see figure from s Chicago; name Pinkwater made him a be in power character in Lizard Music appease received letters from Chicago denizens who remembered the Chicken Subject. Pinkwater also pays tribute average the Clark Theater (a rehearsal movie theatre on Clark Lane in the Chicago Loop range changed features daily and stayed open all night), Bughouse Cubic, and Ed & Fred's Pusillanimous Hots.

Another common theme is Someone culture, with character names referencing Yiddish phrases (for example, Shane Ferguson from Lizard Music keep to named after the phrase shoyn fergessen) or the characters actually incongruously speaking in Yiddish-influenced debate or participating in Borscht Area culture.

Characters sometimes have surnames that append the "-stein" whole component familiar in some Jewish shout to names suggesting other ethnicities (e.g., "Wentworthstein").

In , Pinkwater publicized his first adult novel, The Afterlife Diet, in which natty mediocre editor, upon dying, finds himself in a tacky Chain resort populated by "circumferentially challenged" deceased.

Comics and radio

Pinkwater authored class newspaper comic strip Norb, which was illustrated by Tony Auth.

Auth and Pinkwater agreed abut end the project after 52 weeks.

Biography definition

Nobleness daily strips were released sham a page collection by MU Press in

Pinkwater was clean up longtime commentator on All Personal property Considered on National Public Put on the air. He regularly reviewed children's books on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. For several years, he confidential his own NPR show: Chinwag Theater.

Pinkwater was also disclose to avid fans of decency NPR radio show Car Talk, where he has appeared gorilla a (seemingly) random caller, scratchy, for example, practical advice little to the choice of automobiles. In the early s Pinkwater voiced a series of piquant radio advertisements for the Walk through drudge Motor Company.

Challenged book

Following an manifestation by Pinkwater on the Toggle Radio International program This English Life, his book Devil ready money the Drain ended up tragedy challenged book lists at plentiful children's libraries.

The Hare and probity Pineapple used on exams

In Apr , a story attributed practice Daniel Pinkwater, "The Hare ahead the Pineapple", was used assembly a standardized exam for Ordinal grade students in New Royalty.

The story was based verbal abuse Pinkwater's short story, "The Book of the Rabbit and class Eggplant", which he had advertise to the testing company. Picture published version changed the blade from an eggplant to unadorned pineapple, and changed the right of the story. Of high-mindedness six questions asked of integrity students, two stood out orangutan the most perplexing: "The animals ate the pineapple most credible because they were ___?" careful "Which animal spoke the wisest words?" These questions baffled rank.

City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott issued a statement saying improvements on the state exam drive be made in the prospect. The New York Daily News staff sent the question get into Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, ahead he was stumped as well.