Meet Daniel Pinkwater

Children's Literature

The "About the Author" series covers popular writers such as Jerry Spinelli and Gail Carson Levine. The design is bright and splashy, with in-your-face library-bound covers and back matter that includes a brief author interview, glossary, and index. McGinty takes a Pinkwater-like approach to the man and his life. The accessible large type is surrounded by amusing sidebars, which offer insight into specific Pinkwater books, and the full-page photos and montages have been chosen with élan. Surprises that crop up include the fact that Pinkwater was apprenticed to be a sculptor before succumbing to his writing and radio career. The only complaint is that a full list of his books is not included. Sure, they number over seventy, but the text mentions only four—and not a whisper about his very best (The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, of course), although Pinkwater claims his best is yet to be written, which is devoutly to be hoped. That lack aside, this biography for young readers is almost as much fun as reading the master himself. 2003, PowerKids Press,
— Kathleen Karr

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-Simple introductions to two popular authors. Large type and lots of photographs, including some showing the subjects as young children, give readers a sense of these men. Each spread has photographs and drawings on one side and text and a sidebar with interesting or fun facts on the other. The sidebars in Pinkwater are a little silly (but then Pinkwater is a very funny man). Readers follow each author from birth to adulthood as McGinty presents assorted facts about his interests and education, and how he entered the field of children's literature. Explanations of how the authors use their own lives as background for their books are well done. (Spinelli's youth was spent in a racially mixed neighborhood, and how this background contributed to the writing of Maniac Magee is carefully explained.) Easy-to-access sources of information.-Susan Lissim, Dwight School, New York City Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.