[Asher]

1) Hypergifted was dedicated to the Kormaniacs. I absolutely loved the book. It reminded me strongly of No Coins Please mixed with The Twinkie Squad. I'm curious if that was intentional. It also had a huge amount of crossreferences to other books, including toothpicks being gambled (as indicated in the book club). I'm curious if you did all this in this book specifically for your fans. Also, when will we see a new Redhead movie (perhaps set in Pefkakia and starring Gavin Gunhold?)

2) I came across an ebay listing for a Losing Joe's Place casette. What is it and when was it released? Thanks! (@Raymond may be able to answer this one).

 

 

Hi, Asher,

Thanks for posting. I'm glad HYPERGIFTED went over so well with you. As you can imagine,it was fun to write, too. Noah is a big favorite with me.

Toothpicks are often used as poker ante, so no, that wasn't deliberate. As for a connection between "Coins" and "Twinkie," the only explanation I can think of is that they were written by the same author. I can't match the dates, though, one is '84 and the other in '92. Hmmm. And I'm kind of vague about Redhead movies -- 107 books tends to do that to a writer -- it's all one giant mosaic swirling around in my head.

As for a LOSING JOE'S PLACE cassette, I think they must be referring to an old audio CD. Certainly, there were no movies.

Good to hear from you, Asher.                                                                                   -----Gordon Korman-----

[Raymond Jardine]

Hey, @Asher. NO COINS PLEASE and I WANT TO GO HOME got repeated shout-outs in the HYPERGIFTED Kormaniacs Book Club (here: https://gordonkorman.com/forum?t=32014). But I believe THE TWINKIE SQUAD had only one mention. If you have insights about connections between the Thaddeus G. Little Middle School squad and the Wilderton University summer school cohort, please share! As for the next Redhead movie, I suspect Brenda Lipschitz Bibi Lanay would be old enough by now to play God's Grandmother in a LOSING JOE'S PLACE adaptation.

 

Which was my unsubtle segue to the realm of 1 Pitt Street, Toronto. I've tracked down "audio cassette" listings for LOSING JOE'S PLACE several times over the years and have yet to find a copy. It's usually identified by ISBN 9780590427685. Many of the big book resellers catalog that ISBN as a cassette tape, as does Goodreads and WorldCat. When I've seen a LJP "cassette" listed for sale and inquired to the seller, it invariably turns out the offering is actually a hardcover (ISBN 9780590427687) or pocket paperback (ISBN 9780590427695) that was misentered. 

One weak part of my Korman library is audiobooks. Over the years, I have picked up a few random cassettes, CDs, and Playaway preloaded books, but I don't have even a list of what was produced across the years. I suspect a bunch of them were produced but in comparatively small distribution (and, of course, when a cassette breaks, it's tossed--so even fewer would remain now). I  know "Recorded Books" released cassette tape audiobooks of some early GRK titles, but THE TWINKIE SQUAD is the earliest one I can think of. There was also a Scholastic Author cassette and a Mead "Meet the Author" filmstrip with audio via cassette--way way back!--but those were biographical rather than audiobooks.

[Asher]

rudy - this may be your shot

https://www.ebay.com/itm/389877180514?_trksid=p4375194.c102727.m162921