Acknowledgments

First and foremost, if you read this book, thank you for giving this Hawaiian adventure a chance.

I am endlessly grateful for the amazing group of people who helped make this story a reality. Thank you to Elizabeth Lee, my editor, who helped me hone my whirlwind of a tale. Your ability to shine a light on the heart of my characters is the best kind of magic. To Mary Claire Cruz and Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien of KAA Illustration for creating a cover that elicited cheers from thousands of students. Thank you to the entire team at Penguin Random House, including Tess Banta, Kristen Head, Sierra Pregosin, and the best sales and marketing team ever. I so appreciate your hustle and support! Mahalo to amazing local Hawaiʻi artist Kelsie Dayna for the fabulous chapter header illustrations and picture-perfect postcard. Thanks so much to Suzie, Sarah, Olivia, and the team at New Leaf for continuing this journey with me.

Thank you SO much to all the teachers, schools, bookstores, libraries, and other places and people that have welcomed me and countless readers into your spaces to talk about how great writing and reading books can be. Thank you most of all to the people who have read and supported Lei on her adventures in Hawaiʻi so far!

To the teams at We Need Diverse Books and Writers & Artists Across the Country, I will never be able to thank you enough for helping me get to meet with thousands of students and to give each of them a copy of Lei. That was a life highlight.

Pōmaikaʻi Iaea and Kealani Netane, mahalo for being authenticity readers for this story!

To all the students I’ve met with, thank you for your time and I hope you find stories and subjects that inspire you to dig deeper and have fun learning more.

To all my family and friends who have become the best hype team I could ever ask for over the last year, thank you so much for showing up and celebrating with me. I love you all!