Thanks to Lois Lowry and the PEN New England Children’s Book Discovery Committee for first seeing the potential of this book; to Jen Hirsch, formerly of Brookline Booksmith, and Lorraine Barry of the Reading Public Library, as well as Charline Lake, Janine O’Malley, Sandy Oxley, Lincoln Ross, Jan Voogd, and Diane Young, for their comments at various stages of the manuscript; and to my editors at Atheneum, Caitlyn Dlouhy and Susan Burke, for their superb guidance and warm support.