Tag Archive for Jigsaw Jones

Fan Mail Wednesday #17

October 21, 2008 / / No comments

Here’s one that just came sizzling through the wires, presumably typed by an older sister:

Hi!
My brother Tommy is a huge fan of yours. He is reading Six Innings and is enjoying it very much. My sister Kathy is reading Jigsaw Jones and is also loving it!! Thanks for your time! Please right back.

From, Mary Beth

*Live * Laugh * Love*

Here’s my reply:

Dear Mary Beth, Tommy, and Kathy,

Thanks for the note. This is exactly what I’m talking about, America! Everybody in the house should be reading my books. Even the pets! Wait, I take that back — especially the pets!

Seriously, Tommy, I’m glad you are reading Six Innings. I vividly remember when I played Little League. Once when I was ten years old, the youngest kid in the Majors, I lost a game that I pitched, 1-0. I was crushed. I remember sitting in my dad’s car after the game — hiding, really — fighting back the tears that welled in my eyes. The opposing team’s pitcher, Michael Aldridge, who was 12 years old and the best player in the league, came over and shook my hand. He told me I pitched really well. But I couldn’t even look at him. All I did was sniffle. It’s amazing that I can remember that so perfectly, 37 years later. It must have been important, you know? That’s why I wrote that book. For a lot of boys like me, those games mean, or meant, a lot.

Kathy, that’s cool you are loving my Jigsaw Jones books. As a matter of fact, I am writing a new one, The Case of the Skeleton’s Secret. Anyway, I’ve never had anyone fart in a Jigsaw Jones book. Or burp, for that matter — even after more than 250,000 words. But I’m thinking about writing a fart scene after I finish this letter. Why? I can’t possibly think of a good reason! Except I want it to sound like this . . . poof . . . the softest, quietest sound ever. It’s more about the reaction than the, um, gaseous event. So it’s important WHO farts, you know. Obviously, this requires some DEEP THINKING. So I’ll write it, but I can’t promise the scene will stay in the book. We’ll see what my editor thinks. Do you think it’s too gross? I’m afraid it might be. But like they say, “Everybody farts.” Except for my wife, who simply refuses. I’m worried that one day she’ll explode.

Mary Beth, you must be a great sister. It was nice of you to write the email for Tommy and Kathy. I like that you end your message with: *Live * Laugh * Love* But I think you forgot some other essential L-words, like: *Lollipops * Lungfish * Lilliputian * La-de-da * Leg-of-Mutton * and Ludicrous.

Just trying to be helpful.

JP

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Category: Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones / Tags: , ,

Fan Mail Wednesday #16

October 15, 2008 / / No comments

It’s that time of week again. Here’s an email I received from a mother:

My boys loved your email! As we’ve come to expect from you, your writing had them laughing. We look forward to reading your next book.

As a parent, I’d also like to add that I appreciate the appropriateness of the behaviors and words Jigsaw and his friends use. I say this because I attempted to start a new series today called “_____ ______” and was quite appalled by what I was reading — I had to quit and return the books.

I sound so “mommyish” saying that, but I really want you to know that I appreciate your work even more than I did before!

Getting up on my high horse, but hopefully not too sanctimonious, I replied:

Thank you for noticing. I agree with you 100%, even to the point where I’m somewhat shocked by my conservative approach.

My children are not allowed to call anyone “stupid” or “dumb” or “fat.” To them, those are “bad words.” And in Jigsaw’s world, across almost 40 books and 250,000 words, they don’t exist. I don’t see the value of it. These books are for 1st, 2nd, 3rd-grade children. There is time enough for them to be exposed to those behaviors and that language. Hey, if they take the school bus, they are exposed to far worse. But that’s not what I want to do with my books. I’m proud of that — it’s very, very important to me — and I am not a wilting flower by any means.

As a parent, I’ve had the same experiences as you: sitting in a theater watching an animated kids movie, or reading a early chapter book, and I’ll be struck by some crude language. Why here, why now? I’ll think. To me it’s the worst kind of pandering and awfully cheap. I glanced at a book my seven-year-old daughter (below) was reading — and, it must be noted, enjoying.

My youngest, Maggie.

Two kids in school are talking. One says, “Say what?” The other answers, “Your butt.” Okay, I get that, and I understand that young readers might find that funny. He said BUTT! Hey, put FART in the title and you are halfway to the bestseller list. Sigh. It’s okay. It’s a big world and there’s room for everybody. We all have to make our own choices.

Thanks for writing.

JP

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Category: Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones / Tags: ,

Fan Mail Wednesday: #14

October 1, 2008 / / 2 comments

Holy cow, here’s one from Texas:

Dear Mr. Preller,

We discovered your Jigsaw Jones series at the beginning of summer as part of a Scholastic mystery books collection. At first we were reading 2-3 chapters a day, but it didn’t take long for us to be reading a book a day. My boys, Jonathan (6) and Andrew (5), drop everything they are doing and sit still for the entire time it takes to read one of your books. There aren’t a lot of mystery books for this age group, so we were delighted to find you! I also appreciate finding books that are about boys specifically, although Mila seems like a really great best friend. Thanks to you I have spent some quality time with two little guys who rarely stop moving!

Jonathan has this to say:

I like your Jigsaw books a lot. My favorite character is Jigsaw. I wonder how you know the secret codes. I wonder if you make them up or if you were a spy or something.

Andrew says:

“He needs to keep on writing Jigsaw Jones cause it’s a nice book. I like to read it. My favorite part is when Jigsaw Jones finds out the case.

Sincerely,

Esther

Under advisement, I decided not to mess with Texas, so I replied:

Dear Jonathan and Andrew:

Thanks for writing to me, you guys, and thanks especially to MOM for typing the email. I’m so glad to hear when young readers like my books, because I really do believe that reading is important. If you want to get smart, crack open a book!

Jonathan, I usually get ideas for secret codes by reading books about, um, secret codes. I have a bunch of them on my bookshelf. Sometimes I’ll make up my own codes. I was never a detective when I was a kid, but as the youngest of seven children — four brothers and two sisters — I did do a lot of spying on them, especially when my brother, Billy, had a girlfriend over! Good old Janice Snellbaker! I think I loved her! I even had a “spy scope” that let me see around corners. It may have been the greatest thing ever.

Andrew, I have good news and you are the first person I’m going to tell: I’m writing a new “Jigsaw Jones” book right now. I mean, I should be writing it . . . except I’m writing to you, instead. I got a phone call the other day from a young, talented editor at Scholastic — the company that makes the books — and he asked if I wanted to write a new Jigsaw Jones mystery. I asked, “When?” He answered, “Now!” So I looked into my empty wallet and cried, “Let’s do it!”

Thanks so much for writing all the way from The Lone Star State! I visited the Alamo once, and as a boy your age I thought Jim Bowie was the coolest cowboy ever. He sure did own a big, big knife, sometimes called “The Arkansas Toothpick.”

Your friend,

James Preller

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Category: Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones / Tags: , ,

Book Signing: September 27

September 12, 2008 / / One comment

Book signings can be uniquely depressing events, the classic party where nobody comes. You go to a store, someone hands you a Sharpie, you sit at a desk behind a short stack of books . . . and nobody shows. Most every author could tell you that story, between muffled sobs and shots of bourbon. (Muffled shots and sobs of bourbon?) Even worse, there are the ordinary patrons of the store who did not come for the “special author appearance” but, instead, arrive solely to purchase a new cookbook for Cousin Muffy. They wander near the author’s table, curiously sniff, give a tight-lipped (suspicious) nod, then perambulate over to Paperback Bestsellers.

Or you have this conversation, while they gingerly pick up your book as if it were an explosive device:

Patron: “Did you write this?”

Author: “Yes, it’s a children’s book.”

Patron: “I don’t have any children myself.”

Author: “I see.”

Patron: “They should all be cooked in boiling lard!”

Author: “Okaaaaaay.”

Which is why I’ve pretty much sworn off the humiliation of book store signings.

However!

I’ll be at the Open Door Book Store in Schedectady, New York, on September 27th, from 1:00 – 2:30.

Stop in for a chat.

JP

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Category: Happenings / Tags: , , , , ,

Fan Mail Wednesday #12: The Thursday Edition!

September 11, 2008 / / 2 comments

Here’s a good one:

Lieber Herr Preller,
Ich würde gerne wissen wieviele Bücher Sie von Puzzle Paul geschrieben haben.Ich mache nämlich einen Vortrag über Ihnen und ihre Bücher.

Dear mister Preller,
I would like to know, how many books you have write about puzzle Paul? I am making a prestation for school about your Books.
Thanks a lot and many greets.

Viviane S from Switzerland

PS: I like your books very much

Quick background for my blog readers (and I thank you for that): Yes, as you may have gathered, quite a few Jigsaw Jones mysteries have been translated into German. In the process, he was renamed “Puzzle Paul.” My books have appeared in several different languages, including French, Spanish, and Italian. I recently learned that the translation rights for Six Innings have been sold for Korean, and I can’t wait to see that!

My response:

Many greets to you, Viviane!

It is exciting to hear from a reader in Switzerland. I traveled in your beautiful country once, back when I was a hitchhiking, tent-sleeping, bread-and-cheese-eating (read: poor) college student in the, ahem, early 1980’s. Cough, cough. Good times, good times.

In English, there are 37 different Jigsaw Jones titles. However, I think there are about 8-10 that have been translated into German. Which, frankly, amazes me. Did you realize that the original, English-language versions feature only black-and-white illustrations, while the German editions come in full color? Though the German editions translated my words, the publisher hired a new artist, Peter Nielander, to create all new artwork — and the books come in hardcover! In German, my book, The Case of the Class Clown, is called, Der Spinnentrick, and there are spiders on the cover!

If you have any specific questions you’d like for me to answer, please send them along and I’ll be happy to answer them. I’d like you to get high marks on your presentation! In the meantime, you might want to look here or here for more info.

Thanks for reading my books!

JP

P.S.: Your note inspired me to search in my files for a thick, thick folder of long-forgotten poems I wrote decades ago. I found the one I was looking for, written while I was sitting on a rock in Montreux, age 21. Ah, to be young and full of words!

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Category: Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones / Tags: , , , , , ,
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