READER’S FORUM

November 9, 2023 at 08:04 pm Reply

M Engel

Hello Gordon Korman,

I am endlessly excited that I am writing to you and that you may read these words. When I was 10 years old in 1984 I came upon No Coins Please in a bookstore I passed each day on the walk home from school. The summary on the back grabbed me but as I did not have the money to buy it I read one chapter every day in the store until I was halfway through and exhausted and asked my parents to buy it for me. I can't tell you how many times I read it once I owned it. I then got into the McDonald Hall series, then a friend told me about I Want to Go Home and I bought it and fell in love with it, and I was so excited when I came upon Our Man Weston in the library. You had written one book after another that spoke to me.

As an adult now I am a ferocious reader and when people ask me my favorite author I frequently have to give the author of more adult titles but frequently end with "but the author whose books I have enjoyed the most is Gordon Korman". I often get back a smile and an anecdote about how they like your books too. I was telling my 12 year old daughter about my experience with your books one day and she said since these books are all about boys she probably wouldn't like the author. Literally the next day she came to me and told me she was reading a new book that she really enjoyed and she looked at the the front page and was surprised to see it was written by the author I had been telling her about.

When I was 45 a friend of mine bought a used copy of No Coins Please for a gift and I still occasionally smile and flip through it when I come upon it in the house.

So I wanted to say thank you for all the joy and for giving my younger self characters to read about that reminded me of me.

If you can please let me know you received this message it would mean a lot to me.

Thank you!

M. Engel
November 10, 2023 at 03:45 am Reply

Gordon Korman

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Hi, M.,

Yes, I received this, and I'm touched and grateful. I think you would have turned into a bright person and a super-reader on your own, but I'm happy to take credit for some of it f you're willing to give it to me!

You might also want to know that the book I'm working on right now will be #106 when it comes out a couple of years down the road. Right now my output stands at 102, with SLUGFEST, #103, due out in January.

It's been quite a career so far, and I have people like you to thank for it.

Thanks for getting in touch. -----Gordon Korman-----
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Hi, M.,

Yes, I received this, and I'm touched and grateful. I think you would have turned into a bright person and a super-reader on your own, but I'm happy to take credit for some of it f you're willing to give it to me!

You might also want to know that the book I'm working on right now will be #106 when it comes out a couple of years down the road. Right now my output stands at 102, with SLUGFEST, #103, due out in January.

It's been quite a career so far, and I have people like you to thank for it.

Thanks for getting in touch. -----Gordon Korman-----