Acknowledgments

Here is our short list of the many people who’ve helped us out. To all those inadvertently omitted or forgotten, moshiwake gozaimasen.

Max Bell provided much of the inspiration for this project from the very beginning.

Also, huge thanks to the students at ASIJ who are the kids who provided quotes for this book. Your names are changed, but you know who you are: Ali, Daphne, Hailey, Kenta, Marcus, Mimi, Mitch, Nicole, Oliver, Ruth, Thomas, Vlad, and Yuki.

Sincere gratitude to Karen Noll (“Comma-sama”), Kathy Krauth, Brigid Flannery, and David Islascox, who reviewed our many drafts, continually providing help and encouragement. Nancy Kroonenberg also reviewed early drafts thoroughly and insightfully. Min-Jin Lee provided further writing advice from someone who writes a million times better than we do.

More special thanks to Eddie and Rebecca and the whole Phillips clan for their excellent ideas and inimitable spirit; Mark Kline, who inspired Dr. Whatever in Chapter 5; Ben Kline for reading and critiquing, Alina Shumsky for reading—and approving!—and Gail Hochman for her prescient insights into the publishing process.

Very different thanks to Abe and Adaia Shumsky, for showing what is good and Mah Tov. Also to Bob and Helen Ann Cox for being such great role models.

And certainly, further thanks are due to our editor Eric Braun, who devoted massive effort to shaping this book and making it what it is.