I must thank my legion of readers/critics. I was too stubborn to accept all their advice, but the corrections and suggestions I did use made the work much better. Thanks and hooray to Helen Blackshear, W.C. Bryant, Dell Catherall, Joyce Franz, Dianne Greene, Kurt Maurer, Catherine McLain, Pat Moran, Barb and B.J. Taylor, Francis and Mary Alice Tucker, Gina Vaughn, Murry Williamson, and Mrs. Wilton and her fifth graders at Wrights Mill Road Elementary School. A special cheer for Carolyn Buchanan, Norman Davis, Ora Maurer, Bill Robinson, Dennis Hale, John Frandsen, Charlotte Miller, and all the other creative talents from Mary Carol Moran’s Novel Writers Workshop at Auburn University, and for Mary herself, the world’s greatest writing teacher. — L.W.