Tina Prezioso, age 12, of Trumbull, Conn., for her question:
How does Andy select questions for the column?
Every year or so, lots of young persons reach the right age to start reading Andy's column. So once in 'a while it seems only fair to explain how it works. Besides, sometimes his faithful old readers tend to forget some of the details. So once in a while they may welcome a few reminders.
The column answers questions from readers between the ages of 7 and 17. Naturally, we permit interested adults to read it if they wish, but Andy does not answer their questions. He cannot even answer all the questions from his young pen pals and, as you can imagine, selecting just two for the daily column is a big problem.
Some people seem to think that Andy runs a sort of contest for the best questions. This is nonsense because he happens to think that every question that pops into your head is better than best. Nevertheless, he does have a few rules to guide him.
In the first place, he tries to pick questions that are likely to interest most of his readers. As a rule, these questions are of two types. Some are surprising questions that nobody ever thought of before. Others are popular favorites that everybody asks sooner or later.
For example, Andy reads a question about a saiga. Until that moment he had never heard of this rare, remote animal. But he investigated and the story was so fascinating that he thought most of his readers would enjoy it. This selection was easy because only one pen pal asked about the saiga.
On the other hand, the fastest flying bird is a very popular topic. Recently 20 or so readers asked about it. As you can imagine, it was very hard to select one of 20 to appear in the column. In cases of this sort, Andy depends upon a few guidelines.
Some must be disqualified because the writing is almost unreadable. Fancy lettering and perfect spelling are not necessary, but the words must be plain enough for Andy to read without getting a headache.
Some forgot to sign their names or to include home addresses with ZIP codes. Since the reader selected gets a book award, obviously Andy needs this information to know where to send it. But most of the 20 were disqualified because they forgot to give their ages. This is important because younger readers like simpler answers and older readers enjoy deeper explanations.
Suppose Andy is left with two equally good questions. Then he selects the card or letter that seems most polite and friendly. But please remember that he can select only a few of your many, many perfect questions.
If your question was answered for somebody else, please do not feel mad or sad. Other good ones will pop into your head. You can ask Andy as many questions as there are stars in the sky and, who knows, one of yours may be selected at some future time.