Turns out, it isn’t very easy to get into the White House. It used to be a bit easier: you could arrange for a tour shortly before visiting Washington, DC. But these days, you have to call your congressman’s office months ahead of time, and even then, there’s no guarantee you can get in. I couldn’t. So I called my good friend Nani Coloretti instead. Nani is the kind of person who gets invited to the White House, rather than having to take the tour. She gave me all sorts of fascinating info about the White House, which was invaluable in writing this book. I couldn’t have done it without her. In fact, I probably learned more from Nani than I would have from the tour, because the official tour doesn’t even take you to the West Wing or the Eisenhower Exective Office Building, while Nani has been to both. (I should point out that, if I got anything wrong in my description of the White House, that’s not Nani’s fault; I may have screwed some things up.)
For the record, the White House does have a website that gives some info about the place, and you can even tour it on Google maps, so that was all helpful too.
In addition, I owe thanks, yet again, to my good friend Larry Hanauer. For those of you who have been carefully reading the acknowledgments to every one of my books, you will certainly have seen Larry’s name come up before. In fact, this is the third series Larry has helped with, making him the first person to get the coveted Stuart Gibbs Trifecta Award. Larry’s contribution this time was to tell me what an insane place the Pentagon was—and to point out that, even though it’s almost impossible to get into the White House, pretty much anyone can take a tour of the Pentagon. (Including me, it turns out.)
Also, thanks to my editor, the great Kristin Ostby, who sadly left the publishing world after this book. (Not because of it, mind you. She simply had other things she wanted to do more.) Kristin oversaw a lot of my books and left some pretty big shoes to fill, but my new editor, Liz Kossnar, has stepped up to the challenge. And huge thanks to my publisher, Justin Chanda, for making the transition happen smoothly and always supporting my work.
Thanks also need to be given to my eternally excellent agent, Jennifer Joel, without whom Spy School wouldn’t exist, and to her extremely clever nephew Maverick Satnick, who came up with the title for this book.
Finally, I need to thank my wonderful wife, Suzanne, for her constant support, enthusiasm, and cheerleading—and the world’s greatest test audience, my children, Dashiell and Violet. I love you all to infinity and beyond.