I love writing stories, but I always find it hard. As I wrote this book, some generous and talented people encouraged, supported and challenged me to make Leo and Ralph shine brighter than I thought possible. It was still hard, but they made it much easier. Thank you to the following:

Clair Hume, for helping me find the story in the idea.

Cathy Vallance, for sharpening the text and illustrations on every level.

Mark Macleod, for an edit that strengthened the story and taught me so much, again.

Thanks also to Jo Hunt for a sparkling cover design, and Kate Garaty for making the internals shine.

To the whole UQP team, thank you for working together to launch another book into the world for me.

Thank you to all the bookshops, libraries, teachers, librarians and parents who put books in the hands of children.

Finally, thanks to my family, especially Bron, Sophie and Willow (my unofficial story supervisor) for being there for me, as I sat in the corner of the house, dreaming all of this up.