Thanks to Swati Avasthi for letting me talk through the entire outline with her one cold day in Minnesota; to Sarah Aronson, Brenda Ferber, Carolyn Crimi, Jenny Meyerhoff, and Mary Loftus for reading this book in its early stages; and to Anne Ursu for reading it in every stage and listening to me whine about it. Thanks also to Ebony Wilkins and Hannah Gómez for all their amazing insights, and to copyeditors Renée Cafiero and Anne Heausler for their tireless efforts to keep me from repeating words, contradicting myself, and generally screwing things up. Any errors of fact or representation are mine.
To my colleagues and my dear friends at Hamline University, including Mary Rockcastle, Anne Ursu, Swati Avasthi, Emily Jenkins, Jackie Briggs Martin, the Marshas Chall and Qualey, Phyllis Root, Sherri L. Smith, Claire Rudolf Murphy, Ronald Koertge, Coe Booth, Gary Schmidt, Gene Yang, Matt de la Pe?a, Megan Atwood, Christine Heppermann, and Miriam Busch: you guys rock. Thank you so much for the conversation and the inspiration. A special shout-out to Sarah Park Dahlen, who knows where to get the best cupcakes and the best pho.
Thanks, too, to Ellen Oh, Will Alexander, Katherine Paterson, and Valerie Lewis. Our intense but friendly debates about books helped sustain me through a difficult and tumultuous year. I’m so proud of our work and happy to know all of you.
Huge, huge thanks to my ladies: Anne Ursu, Kelly Jensen, Sarah McCarry, Justina Ireland, Tessa Gratton, Leila Roy, Miriam Weinberg, Laurel Snyder, Tracey Baptiste, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Kelly Barnhill, Martha Brockenbrough, Kate Messner, and Linda Urban for keeping me sane (and keeping me in funny animal pics) when I thought I was losing my mind, and to Annika Cioffi, Melissa Ruby, and Tracey George for not letting me forget where I come from. Tanya Lee Stone, you always know when to call. Linda, I think about you every day.
And finally, thanks to Melissa, Jessica, and Steve for putting up with my endless obsessions and distraction while I worked on this story. Love you.