RUSH: Here is Nicky in my hometown, Cape Girardeau, Missouri. How about that? Nicky, welcome to the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush.
RUSH: How are you?
CALLER: Oh, really good. I’m glad to get through.
RUSH: I’m glad you did, too. Thanks much.
CALLER: I wanted to call and congratulate you on your children’s book and I’m so glad that you took that endeavor.
RUSH: Well, thank you. So am I.
CALLER: I have an 11-year-old son, and he’s one of those boys that is not interested in reading. He would rather be out playing in the dirt with his tractors. He only reads because the school makes him read and I make him read at home, otherwise he doesn’t want to read.
RUSH: Now, but you understand that that is entirely normal and your son does not have a phobia and he does not need medication?
CALLER: That’s right. Yes. I understand.
RUSH: All right, good. Good. He doesn’t need any lithium, doesn’t need any Xanax, doesn’t need any Adderall, whatever they get. He doesn’t need it; he’s cool.
CALLER: No. He’s just a country boy and likes the outdoors. Well, I got him your book for Christmas, and I was really glad to find out that it was part of the AR program at school, which is what they get their points for.
RUSH: AR, I must explain to the people in Rio Linda, who themselves have not yet gotten into reading. AR is the advanced reading program.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Now, how does your son qualify for that if he doesn’t like to read?
CALLER: Well, it’s a part of their reading at school and they get so many points per each book, and they’re supposed to have so many points in a quarter.
RUSH: I got you. I see.
CALLER: It’s just to help encourage him to read at school.
RUSH: Got you.
CALLER: So, he started reading your book for school, but then soon he started bringing it home and reading it at home on his own. We even went to a duck decoy class, and at the end of class he had some extra time, and he even brought the book with us. I was just amazed at how much interest he took in your book. And especially after I explained to him that, you know, besides the fictional characters when they went back into history, that all those facts were true and that those are all historical events that are true. And then of course I explained to him who you were and now he thinks he has a bond to you, since you’re a hometown boy.
RUSH: Well, he does. This is cool.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: So you have a son who was not interested in reading at all and only did it because he had to.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And then you gave him my book and he liked it so much he read it even during times he didn’t have to read, he wasn’t being told to read.
CALLER: Yes. Yes, he did, and he even recommended it to a teacher and let his teacher borrow it, and she’s reading it right now.
RUSH: I hope he gets it back.
CALLER: Oh, he will because I’m gonna make sure he gets it back.
RUSH: I’m just kidding. I just like to take these pleasant jabs at teachers. Well, that’s a wonderful story. I’m glad you got through to tell me this.
CALLER: Yes. Me, too. I’m going to buy the next book so he can read it for this next quarter.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. You know what I wanna do, if you’ll hang on, Nicky, I want to send you the audio versions of both that I recorded, and you can play those when you’re in the car driving around, or wherever. And it’s totally unabridged. It’s every word but read by me, and it’s an entirely different experience.
I want to thank you, because you told him everything in it’s true. He’s found it to be entertaining, it’s a good story, he likes it — I’m sure I’m one of the characters that he likes — but you told him that it’s true, it really happened. And that is important, because there’s a mission, I like to call it a mission, there’s a purpose here for these books, and it’s exactly that. So you’ve done your job as well, and I appreciate the call, I thank you very much. Hang on so Mr. Snerdley can get your address. We already know the ZIP code. I already know the ZIP code and we’ll get it out to you as quickly as we can.