RUSH: Here’s Emmy in Dalton, Georgia. You’re next. Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Hi there. Say hello.

EMMY: Hi.

RUSH: Ha-ha-ha. The family’s on the phone.

CALLER: Yes. My daughter Emmy is a fan. She follows after her grandma and me. I’m mommy.

RUSH: That’s cool.

CALLER: She’s sitting here giggling and blushing.

RUSH: I cause that in women, I know. It just happens. I’m very, very familiar with it.

CALLER: But we wanted call you because Emmy’s been bugging me to speak with you, and as I said, we are fans, and she has wanted to say hello. And I wanted to tell you that she is homeschooled, and we listen to you every day.

RUSH: Is this show course credit?

CALLER: No, but it’s teaching her lessons, ’cause she hears mommy and grandpa rant and rave, and now she knows why we’ve been ranting and raving.

RUSH: So she’s 10, did you say?

CALLER: Yes, she is. She’s 10.

RUSH: Now, is she the one that said hello when I answered the phone? Has she already been on the phone or are you gonna put her on?

EMMY: Yes.

CALLER: That was Emmy.

RUSH: That was Emmy. Hi, Emmy! You’re there now.

EMMY: Yes.

RUSH: How are you doing today, Emmy?

EMMY: Good. How are you?

RUSH: Well, I’m great since you’ve called. I never got to call people like me when I was supposed to be in school, but when you do it, it’s part of school. You have it so good. Your mom is obviously great, and I couldn’t be happier that she’s introduced you to this program.

EMMY: I couldn’t be happier, either.

RUSH: (Laughing) Do you have any pets, Emmy?

CALLER: Yes, we have a dog. She’s a boxer.

RUSH: And how old is she?

CALLER: Seven.

EMMY: Seven.

RUSH: Seven. Well, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. I want you to hang on, Emmy. Don’t hang up the phone because I want to get your mom back on, and I want to send you all some Rush Revere stuff, maybe a couple books, Ted-Tea Bear, a couple of other things, so don’t hang up the phone. Thanks for calling, back in a moment.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Brian in Charlotte, North Carolina. Great to have you, sir. Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, how’s it going?

RUSH: Pretty good, sir, thank you.

CALLER: I just wanted to call and thank you so much for your Rush Revere series and to let you know the tremendous impact that you have had on my 11-year-old daughter, Brooke.

RUSH: Oh, really? That’s cool. How so?

CALLER: (chuckling) Well, when the books came out I got her the first book, the Brave Pilgrims, not knowing really how she would react to it. But she’s an avid reader. So I figured, “Let’s give it a try.” She could not put that book down. In fact, she read it in three days.

RUSH: And she’s 11?

CALLER: No, back then she was 10. That was last year. Now she’s 11.

RUSH: That’s incredible.

CALLER: Last year she was in fifth grade and she read your first book in three days and loved it. She could not stop talking about it. In fact, the subjects that she was learning about in history in school last year during that time correlated with your book, and so she would come home and tell me how much she could remember on her history tests as a result of reading your book. (chuckles)

RUSH: That’s just remarkable. I thank you, because I think that’s justification for the way we’re doing it. We are trying to make history books… They’re history, but how many history books are out there? There’s zillions of ’em. You find history books are a dime a dozen. What we wanted to do here is make history an adventure numerous times in each book where the reader actually goes there.

CALLER: That’s what makes ’em so special, because unlike regular history books that just present facts, your books actually inspire kids. One of the comments that my daughter, Brooke, has said to me numerous times is that you write in a way that connects with children, and not only in a way that they can understand, but in a way that they can remember facts. If she’s any indication of your ability to connect with an audience, your target audience, then I would definitely say that you’ve hit a home run. But I also wanted to let you know that you had mentioned the new Rush Revere website —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — a couple of weeks ago, and so I introduced her to the website. She took a look at it, and she loved it, and so she saw the section where you can write Liberty.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: And so she asked if she could go ahead and send a message to Liberty, and I said, “Sure. That’s fine.” I don’t even know what she wrote. She sent it off, and it wasn’t too long after that that she got a response from one of your employees saying that Liberty’s off on a time-traveling adventure.

RUSH: (laughing) That’s right.

CALLER: But they’re in the office in the meantime, and wanted to know if Liberty could send a little package to Brooke. So she asked me if that was okay, and I said sure. So she was expecting just to get a thank-you from Liberty in the mail, but instead she got a package that had a Ted-Tea Bear, the second book of yours — the Exceptional Americans — and a Rush notebook. Anyhow, she was so excited. That entire weekend she could not stop talking about it. She was so excited and happy to be able not only get the package, but just that someone cared enough to respond to her message, that she even named her bear Eric in response to the guy in the book.

RUSH: I’m happy to hear that. I’m happy to hear of the experience and that it was received so well. We do. We try to answer every inquiry that we get, and we reply in ways that we hope everybody is surprised. ‘Cause, you know, to us, you — the readers, the audience — I mean, you’re everything. We don’t think it’s possible to overdo our gratitude.

That’s why we have an entire little team here set up just to handle and deal with these requests and inquiries, fan mail or what have you, because it has such important meaning to us. So I’m really glad to hear what experience your daughter had and loves the books and so forth, and I’m glad she got the care package. I really appreciate it, and I can’t thank you enough, Brian.