Daniel Pinkwater and Scott Simon maintained their role as the Oprah Winfrey of picture books this weekend, producing top sales with one rave review broadcast to millions.

The question before me, from hence whenever I see Pinkwater compared to Oprah, is "Who will be Pinkwater's James Frey?

From his appearance:

Mr. DANIEL PINKWATER (Author): Scott, I am deliriously happy to be with you.

SIMON: And is there a beach in Upstate New York?

Mr. PINKWATER: There are beaches, there are lakes.

SIMON: Of course, lakes.

Mr. PINKWATER: There are places people go, and there are bats. I would like to tell you, in fact, my friend the bat.

SIMON: Sure.

Mr. PINKWATER: I have a little screened porch off of my workroom where I like to stretch out in the evening with a non-alcoholic beverage and just enjoy the night, and there is a single bat, just one, never more, who has been coming around for years. I call him Ed, Ed the bat. It might be son of Ed by now, I don't know. But there are lots of bats over towards the barn, but this is a bat who hangs out with me every night.

SIMON: That's wonderful.

Mr. PINKWATER: And we've developed a little sort of bat/human bond.

SIMON: Yeah, now, this story would not confirm this base prejudice, but, right, aren't bats blind?

Mr. PINKWATER: No, no, no. Bats are not blind, but they're nocturnal, and so it's dark, but they can see and they have wonderful radar, and according to the author/illustrator of this book, one Brian Lies, they're cute as a button.