Questions for Casey, from Kids


  1. Casey, I'm a city kid. Why would I want to read about a cowboy? (submitted by Cid E. Slicker) Maybe you'd like to give yer thumbs a rest from playin' video games and texting on your phone long enough to do somethin' old-fashioned like read or listen to somebody who no longer has to spend his life pleasing others all the time.

  2. Why does this book tell a story about a girl? I thought this was a GUY book. (submitted by Majoe Mann) Glad you asked! Because - get used to it - half the people on this planet are girls. They're not as scared about talkin' about their feelin's as most guys are. And how d'ya think I could talk about the most important feelings in the world  - those we have about ourselves - if the only people were a bunch of zip-lipped guys?

  3. Yeah, but she was all upset because somebody made fun of her for being tall. What's that got to do with me? I wish I had that problem! (submitted by Shorty Sanchez) Honey's problem wasn't that she was too tall. Honey's problem was that she let other people's opinion about her matter too much. She didn't know that she didn't have to agree with their opinions of her.By the way, sounds you might be givin' others' opinion of you too much importance. Whatcha think?

While I'm remembering....

After you've read about what happened with me and/or listened to Trent Willmon read my story, I would LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. You can e-mail me  -  Casey, that is - at the colorful address below here. In the subject line, if you'd write something like "From a reader" or "I loved your tale" it would help me sort my mail and get back to you sooner.

Some more questions for Casey:

  1. So, is this just about a bunch of talking about girl-stuff? (submitted by Hall Haboutmee) Hmmph! D'ya think a workin' cowboy just sits around and talks? They do stuff - like taking care of livestock (horses, cattle, and so forth, in case you city folks don't know what that is). It's kind of embarrassing to me for you to know how I was thinkin' and some of the dumb things I did. Like feedin' my dog Troubles a pot o' beans just before we rode out together to work cattle.

  2. A friend says you used some pretty big words in the book. Is this really a kids' book? (Rillee Shicken)  Wait a minute! Don't get me confused with either Grandpa or the author. I'm pretty simple. I talk like cowboys talk. Those two are to blame if there are any big words in the book. I will say this, though: There's nothin' in the story that you can't figure out if you'll pay attention, divide into syllables, or look up (either online or in a paper dictionary).

  3. I don't like using a dictionary. Why don't they just use easy words? (Submitted by Les Effert) Ya didn't much like washin' behind yer ears either, did ya? You want to be as uninformed (I could've said "ignorant") a year from now as you are right now? Fine: just keep doin' what you've been doin' and readin' what you've been readin'. Question for you: Would ya rather have an 8- color box of crayons or the 64 colors? So, why would ya want a word picture to be limited to 8 simple words? How many words do you know for horse? (No, "horsie" doesn't count if you're more than 3 years old!) Neither Grandpa nor Ms. Jenkin is gonna limit you to the little-kid set of words. They know you are WAY better able to understand words!

  4. Somebody said your story was a "flashback, like Where the Red Fern Grows." What's that mean? (Submitted by Rawls Fann)  I'll explain if you'll promise not to tell Ms. Jenkin. (WtRFG is her favorite book ever; she'd start actin' conceited if someone thought it was like KKC!) A flashback starts in the "now" and goes back to a "back then" story. Knock-Kneed Cowboy opens with Honey visitin' Grandpa. Then he tells her a story about somethin' that happened to me a long time before. My story is the "flashback." Because Honey and Grandpa keep discussin' my story, it could get confusin'. However, when it's in the flashback, the print is indented, it's a different color, and a different font (a different kind of print). So it's easy to tell whether Grandpa is talking about my story or something in the present time.

  5. I saw on the front page that someone called Trent Willmon reads a "3-CD audiobook." Who's he? What's that? Trent Willmon is a country music recording artist, a songwriter, an actor, and  the author's son. He sings great and does a good impression of a fairy godfrog on the audio book. It takes less than 2 hours to hear the entire story.

  6. What is the best way to read the book? That depends: Some people learn better by listening. So they enjoy listening to the CDs. Others prefer to read. Ms. Jenkin taught school for about a million years (She looks that old, anyway). She says the best way is to use it in a classroom. That's why she put so many fun and challenging things in the back part. (She hates for school to be boring!)
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