Writing this book was a challenge and a joy, and I am so thankful to the incredible teams (plural!) that have supported me through every step of the process. I worked with two fantastic editors on this project. I am so grateful to Kieran Viola for recognizing that this was absolutely the book I needed to write next and for helping me bring Avery, the Hawthorne brothers, and their world to life. Lisa Yoskowitz then guided the book to publication, and her passion and vision for this project, along with her market savvy and grace, have made the process a dream. Any author would be lucky to work with either one of these editors; I am incredibly blessed to have gotten to work with both!
Huge thanks go out to the entire team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, especially Janelle DeLuise, Jackie Engel, Marisa Finkelstein, Shawn Foster, Bill Grace, Savannah Kennelly, Hannah Koerner, Christie Michel, Hannah Milton, Emilie Polster, Victoria Stapleton, and Megan Tingley. Special thanks go out to my publicist, Alex Kelleher-Nagorski, whose enthusiasm for this project has made my day more than once; to Michelle Campbell, for her incredible outreach to librarians and teachers; and to Karina Granda, for her work on the most beautiful cover I have ever seen! I am also in awe of and indebted to artist Katt Phatt, who created the incredible artwork on the cover. Thank you to Anthea Townsend, Phoebe Williams, and the entire team at Penguin Random House UK for their passion for and work on this project, and the team at Disney • Hyperion, who saw the potential in this book in 2018, when it was just a four-page proposal.
Elizabeth Harding has been my agent since I was in college, and I could not ask for a wiser, more incredible advocate! To my entire team at Curtis Brown—thank you, thank you, thank you. Holly Frederick championed TV rights for this book. Sarah Perillo did incredible work on foreign rights (in the midst of a pandemic, no less!). Thank you also to Nicole Eisenbraun, Sarah Gerton, Maddie Tavis, and Jazmia Young. I appreciate you all so much!
I’m immensely grateful for the family and friends who saw me through the writing of this project. Rachel Vincent sat across from me at Panera once a week, told me that I could do this, was always available for brainstorming, and made me smile even when I was stressed enough to want to cry. Ally Carter is always there through the highs and lows of publishing. My colleagues and students at the University of Oklahoma have been supportive in so many ways. Thank you, all!
Finally, thank you to my parents and husband, for endless support, and to my kids, for letting me get enough sleep to write this book.