After ten years of the adventures of Annie and George, it’s finally the last escapade for our two heroes. From black holes to mystery planets, they have taken us on a wild ride through many different areas of science, and so it’s with great sadness that I realize it’s time to leave them in the future and turn a new page myself.
Before I do, I want to say a very grateful thank-you to all the wonderful readers out there who have made the George series such a joy to create. I’ve met so many of you over the past decade and it’s been such a pleasure to answer your many questions. Special thank-you’s this time to my three young advisers, Chloe Carney, Peter Ross, and Benedict Morgan, for their very helpful reviews of the draft version.
A huge thank-you as ever to everyone at Penguin Random House and their sister publishers around the world—but in particular to Annie Eaton for believing in Annie and George right from the start and to Shannon Cullen, Ruth Knowles, Emma Jones, and Sue Cook for taking us all around the universe and bringing us home. Garry Parsons has brought George and his friends to life over the past ten years and done a wonderful job of illustrating them in every possible scenario—whether walking on a new planet or facing down an angry tiger! Also thank you to Rebecca Carter, Kirsty Gordon, and all at Janklow and Nesbit for keeping the mission running smoothly.
I would also like to thank all the fabulous scientists who have contributed in so many ways to this series. If I could get you all in one room for a thank-you party, it would be a roll call of honor of the world’s greatest.
Finally, one scientist deserves the biggest thanks of all—my father, Stephen. Thank you for letting me retell your work as a series of children’s stories, and for lending your unique and irreplaceable voice to what turned out to be far more than just one book. Without you, we would know and understand so much less than we do about the extraordinary universe in which we live. I’m going to borrow a line from you to close the series:
“Don’t forget to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.”