Thank you to my mother and father. You built my moral compass.
Thank you to my teachers. Fifth grade was truly my magical year, and Dr. O’Desky and Dr. Brenner were the reason. (That’s one person. She got married halfway through the year.)
Thank you to my Uncle Jack for reading everything I’ve written the day it’s come out, if not before.
Thank you to Grandma Grace for collecting turtles.
Thank you to the friends who were present in the room (or somewhere else in the house) as this book was being written, especially Mike Ross, who was present when I rediscovered the opening I’d written four years prior and then pretty much forgot was on my computer. (Thanks to my four-years-prior self for getting things started, too. Fellow writers, let this be a lesson to always keep the fragments around.) Thanks to Nick Eliopulos and Zack Clark, whose Adventurers are more fantastical than mine. Thanks to Billy Merrell for being Billy Merrell. Thanks to Andrew Eliopulos, simply because when I thought of who the ideal audience for this book was, the answer was Andrew Eliopulos. And thanks to Regina Spektor, because when I was in search of a title, the first song I thought of was “Us” … and there it was.
Thank you to Tiernan Bertrand-Essington, who’s heard me talk cryptically about this book for a while. I’m happy you can finally read it.
Thank you to everyone who fights for the freedom to read, including all of the organizations mentioned in the author’s note. Thank you to both the publisher of this book, Penguin Random House, and the publisher where I work, Scholastic, for being champions of both books and authors. Special thanks to Dick Robinson from Scholastic for a lifetime of support.
Thank you to Marisa DiNovis, Melanie Nolan, Barbara Marcus, Mary McCue, and the entire Random House family, with a special shout-out to Adrienne Waintraub and her team because this is a book about free expression. Thank you to Bill Clegg and everyone at the Clegg Agency. And last and never, ever least—thank you to Nancy Hinkel, who makes sure the words are all in the right place. I need you like the moon needs poetry.