Pinkwater's first reading experience was with comic books, "which were very good in the mid-to-late 1940's." When he was in first grade he purchased a Batman comic and set out determined to read the whole thing. He labored over it daily until he could read every word. Once he had read the comic book he realized he could read anything. "That changed my mind in a big way," he says of the event. For him, reading is about changing your mind, having "an experience to make your mind different". Some books have the ability to do this. Others don't. The way to find out is to read everything you can get your hands on.

He went on to read a few children's books such as The Five Chinese Brothers and others of the sort. He didn't read very many books that were written for children after, "having found out that my card was good for anything, and the librarians couldn't have cared less what I read.

For myself there was also a blurred distinction between children and adult literature. Having learned to read early in Kindergarten at a private Christian school I read high above my age level for many years. We began using the Bible as a regular text by the first grade and from then I knew that I was not limited to picture books.

After I had read all of the picture books in the school's meager library and the few that my brother had owned as a child (which actually included The Five Chinese Brothers), I moved on to read some of my mother's books like Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Although I didn't understand all of what was happening in the book, it made me feel grown up and proud to be reading it. By the second or third grade I was reading novels almost exclusively.

In the fourth grade I entered a public school and was re-introduced to children's books. My elementary school had a nice large library and I spent much of my time reading books I had checked out there, also going to the city library when I could. Most of my peers were still reading primarily picture books when I entered, but many students began reading longer fiction works during that year. I was involved in some advanced learning classes where we read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

I also became interested in non-fiction books during this time and many of the books I checked out were of this type. My favorites were the books about animals, especially cats.

Reading was of mainly of entertainment value to me by then. I enjoyed reading science fiction books like Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint, as they allowed me to so someplace that an ordinary life would not permit. These books helped me to expand and explore my imagination as well as learn about the world around me. My love for reading spurned a hunger for knowledge, and I wanted to know everything about the subjects I was interested in.

Books provided entertainment to Daniel Pinkwater as well. Beyond the comics he enjoyed reading, he was also introduced to classic literature via the neighborhood children's games. Unbeknownst to the younger children, the games played in the park after school were usually based on some book that an older child had read. "[T]here was the right mix of older brothers and sisters in the neighborhood to give little kids exposure to lots of stories out of books.

Books and historical events like San Juan Hill, and the Battle of Marne, The Three Musketeers and the Hunchback of Notre Dame were reenacted in the schoolyard. "Nemo and Quasimodo were the roles you wanted to play." The older children would tell the stories and even direct the games. "Reading," he says, "was a legitimate kids' entertainment, like movies, and comics. No one made a big deal out of it, as if reading was good for us, or was going to get us better jobs, or anything of that kind. It was a way to get entertainment, and find out neat stuff."

I remember my younger sister and I reading books out loud onto cassette tapes and then listening to them later. As we became older we adjusted this game into a "radio show" where a story would be read and then listeners could call in and state their opinions. We would take on different roles as the radio broadcaster's and listeners alike. Our mother also read to us each night and finished the entire series of Laura Ingalls Wilder books during our childhood.

As we entered adolescence we both read more on our own but often traded and "stole" each other's books because our interests were similar. We didn't have video games like the other kids did so our main forms of entertainment besides after school cartoons were reading and playing outside.

My sister took literature to another level and began writing, directing, and acting in her own plays when she was eleven. I started writing poetry when I was nine and held interest in it until I was eleven or twelve, at which time I began to prefer the non-fiction essay as an outlet for writing. We were good readers and as a result were also good writers.

Reading and writing played an integral role in my childhood development as it did in Daniel Pinkwater's. Pinkwater now writes children's and young adult's fiction, which is adored by children and adults alike. He has influenced and entertained many children, including myself, the same way that he was as a child. As he wrote in his book Chicago Days/ Hoboken Nights, "[G]radually I became convinced that the best way I could address the big evils of the world would be to keep chipping away at something comparatively small."