I remember that editor Ursula Nordstrom made one suggestion about toning down the description of a character’s clothing and another suggesting a line in the book would quickly become dated but, other than that, the typewritten manuscript was pretty much word-for-word what you will read in the finished volume.

I was lucky enough to see the typewritten copy of this manuscript at the Kerlan Library in Minnesota and was shocked by how few edits were made in the book.

The novel is hysterically funny, yet the dramatic climax packs a real emotional wallop. Published in the fall of 1972, DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! announced a major new voice in young adult fiction. Kerr books, from DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! to last year’s SOMEONE LIKE SUMMER. To celebrate the author’s birthday, today’s blog is a retrospective of all the M.E. I love all of Marijane Meaker’s books - but the Kerr young adult novels remain my very favorites. In 1990, another pseudonym was introduced: Mary James, who wrote intermediate grade novels. What a miracle! This was long before you could buy books on the internet.long before the internet itself.so I spent many years on a wonderful treasure hunt, traveling hither and yon to a variety of dusty old bookstores trying to track down all these new/old books. Then imagine suddenly learning that your author has written, oh, twenty or thirty other books you never knew about under names as varied as Vin Packer, Ann Aldrich, Marijane Meaker, and M.J. Think about your own favorite writer, and the often agonizingly-long wait between the publication of each new novel. Kerr” was just one of several pseudonyms that the author (real name Marijane Meaker) had employed during an already long and distinguished writing career. LIttle did I know, during those early years, that “M.E.

From that point on, I knew I couldn’t wait for each new Kerr book to be received by my local library instead, I had to get each one at the bookstore as soon as it was published, though money was scarce and buying even one or two hardcovers a year was something of a luxury.

As soon as I read the last line of the novel, I immediately turned to the first page and began reading it all over again. I remember the first time I read DINKY HOCKER, laughing hysterically yet deeply touched by its honesty and humanity. I’ve had the same answer ever since the day DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! turned up at my branch library in the spring of 1973: People often ask me who my favorite writer is.

Deliver Us from Evie by M.E. Kerr