I still remember holding my first published book. I was in fourth grade and I had written The Chronicles of Rascal. Our elementary school class had the projects printed and bound. I turned the pages of a story I had imagined and made a promise to myself to never stop writing.
I’d like to thank the team at Crown Books for Young Readers for taking my childhood dream and surpassing all expectations. To Emily Easton, for having an even higher vision for this book than I did. Settling for anything less than my best writing wasn’t an option for you, and I’m so thankful for that. I’m also indebted to Alison Impey and Regina Flath for the jacket design, Stephanie Moss for the interior design, and Alison Kolani for the copyediting. Phoebe Yeh, Samantha Gentry, and everyone at Crown Books for Young Readers, and Barbara Marcus, Judith Haut, John Adamo, Kim Lauber, Hannah Black and the rest of the marketing team, and Dominique Cimina and her publicity team at Random House Children’s Books.
I’m really thankful for my wife, Katie. She’s far kinder than I could ever be, and I’m always trying to learn from her example. Her hard work gave me the opportunity to write full-time while we were abroad. I owe that period of creativity and growth to her. More important, I get to laugh with her every night before I go to bed. What would this life be without those brief, eternal joys?
I owe a great deal to my family. Momma, thanks for reading my stories long before they made any sense. You always believed I had something worth saying. Daddio, thanks for diving into new worlds with me and asking the right questions. I owe my love of science fiction and fantasy to my brothers, Matt and Pat. Endless hours playing video games and slaying dragons finally paid off for us! So if you two are up for another run through Molten Core, I’m game. The Zaccardos deserve a hat tip here as well. Thank you for making me feel so welcome and always encouraging my dreams.
A great big thank-you to the teachers who inspired me throughout the years. I’m especially indebted to Susan Letts and Anne Dailey. Your mutual conspiring to land me in a creative writing class was such a demonstration of faith for a young writer. I’ve never forgotten it.
And the relationship between teachers and students works in both directions. I’m indebted to a number of brilliant students for reading my book in its earliest stages. The same teens who inspired me to write a character like Emmett eagerly dove into beta-reading on my behalf. Over fifteen students offered their sage advice and life experiences to help me form Emmett into a more fully realized character. If you ever need a reminder that you’re capable of moving mountains, all you need to do is look at my first and final drafts. Thank you so much. I hope all of you keep writing, and reading, and thinking deeply: the world needs your brilliant stories.
To the members of the Cramp, thank you. Life is unpredictable, but on Thursdays, you’re all there, waiting to talk shop about whatever project is on the table. The leaps and bounds in my writing career might look impressive to the casual observer, but it was really all of you lifting me on your shoulders and throwing me off a cliff, confident that I had learned to fly.
To Daniel, Wes, and Scott. You’re a bunch of clowns, but you’re my clowns. Half of what I know and who I am has shades of each of you in it. Thanks for always being there for me.
To my agent, Kristin Nelson, thanks for being such a warrior. From our very first conversation, there was no other option in your mind for this book than to be a smashing success. Such was your confidence and faith in me, and never once did that falter. Thanks for always taking up my fight.
That same gratitude should be extended to the rest of the amazing team at Nelson Literary Agency and their affiliates: Angie Hodapp, Jamie Perischetti, Kassie Evashevski, and Jenny Meyer.
Last, people always ask what I do for a living. In an effort to sound remotely normal, I tell them I’m an author, but in reality I’m a sub-creator. As such, my biggest thanks will always be to God. I look around at our world, which Gerard Manley Hopkins described as charged by His grandeur, and I’m stunned by the endless creativity. It’s a pleasure to take all that He invented and try to make my own characters, stories, and worlds from it. There’s joy in sub-creation, but always with a nod to the God who was clever enough to envision baboons:
“And you? You shall have a bubblegum butt….”