ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this book felt like magic, and I am grateful to so many people. But first, a special thank-you to one of my favorite places in LA—Little Tokyo, you are a beautiful wonderland that provided me with so much inspiration. The Little Tokyo in this book is, of course, a fictionalized version of the real Little Tokyo and the community therein—the annual summer festival is a little different, Katsu That is not a real restaurant, and there is no massive photo collage at Suehiro (which is one of the best places for Japanese comfort food—that part is true). Some of the other elements are real and some are imagined. There is, for example, no major scandal involving a movie star—at least not that I know of. But Mr. Sherman the cat totally exists.

Thank you to my many superhero teams: the Girl Gang(s), the Shamers, the Ripped Bodice crew, Heroine Club, Asian American Girl Club, Team Batgirl, the Kuhn-Chen-Coffey-Yoneyamas, the writing sprint squads, the Millsies, and the incredible Asian American arts community of LA. As always, I am so honored to be in your company.

The biggest, shiniest thank-you to my marvelous editor, Jenny Bak, who saw this book’s potential and pushed me to take it to its most epic heights. I appreciate your passion for and insight into these characters more than I can say—and I double appreciate your cute couple moniker: Henrika.

Thank you to my agent, Diana Fox, for believing in Rika’s adventures, and to artist Marcos Chin and designer Tony Sahara for bringing them to such glorious life—this cover makes me swoon. And thank you to everyone at Viking, Penguin Random House, and Fox Literary for bringing this book into the world.

Thank you to all the folks who drew me into the magic of Little Tokyo in the first place, especially Jenn Fujikawa, Keiko Agena, Jenny Yang, Naomi Hirahara, Traci Kato-Kiriyama, Scott and Geri Okamoto, Naomi Ko, Will Choi, Phil Yu, Sean Miura, Yumi Sakugawa, Julia Cho, and all the wonderful people involved in the many events I’ve been part of in the neighborhood.

Thank you to Diya Mishra and Liz Ho for the insightful early reads, to superstar Maurene Goo for important YA author counsel, and to Tom Wong for all the brainstorms.

And thank you to Jeff Chen for being my happily ever after—yes, I did name him after you.