Acknowl­edg­ments serve as a per­son­al trib­ute to the many peo­ple who have played a vital role in the author’s cre­ative jour­ney, and in this sec­tion, the author offers heart­felt thanks to sev­er­al key indi­vid­u­als. The author begins by express­ing immense grat­i­tude to Rick and Shirley, who were a source of sta­bil­i­ty and sup­port dur­ing dif­fi­cult times. Their pres­ence was like a safe har­bor amidst the storm, pro­vid­ing both emo­tion­al com­fort and a sense of secu­ri­ty when the world felt uncer­tain. In addi­tion, the author thanks Michelle for her unwa­ver­ing sup­port, whether it was through shar­ing books that sparked new ideas, offer­ing a patient ear dur­ing moments of self-doubt, or sim­ply shar­ing moments of joy, such as enjoy­ing scal­lion pan­cakes togeth­er. These small yet mean­ing­ful ges­tures of friend­ship helped the author stay focused and con­nect­ed to their cre­ativ­i­ty. Sean is also rec­og­nized for his con­stant encour­age­ment in the realms of read­ing and writ­ing, con­sis­tent­ly remind­ing the author to focus on the fin­er details of life that often go unno­ticed, and which ulti­mate­ly enriched the author’s work in unex­pect­ed ways.

The author extends their grat­i­tude to Lau­ri Hornik and Regi­na Castil­lo, rec­og­niz­ing their invalu­able con­tri­bu­tions to the project. In addi­tion, the sup­port from the Dial/Puffin design team and the excep­tion­al team at Pen­guin Young Read­ers Group are high­light­ed for their exper­tise and ded­i­ca­tion in mak­ing the author’s vision a real­i­ty. Spe­cial men­tion is giv­en to Deb­o­rah Kovacs and Micheal Fla­her­ty, whose work at Walden Media was piv­otal in shap­ing the direc­tion of the project. The author also takes the time to acknowl­edge Bran­don Dor­man for his incred­i­ble artistry, not­ing how his vibrant illus­tra­tions brought the sto­ry to life, with col­or­ful depic­tions that added depth and visu­al rich­ness to the work. These con­tri­bu­tions are not just tech­ni­cal; they are emo­tion­al as well, as the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the author and the design team cre­at­ed a tru­ly uni­fied and immer­sive read­ing expe­ri­ence.

Fur­ther acknowl­edg­ment is giv­en to Sarah Hugh­es at Puf­fin in the U.K., whose efforts helped broad­en the reach of the book inter­na­tion­al­ly, ensur­ing that the author’s work found an audi­ence beyond bor­ders. The author express­es grat­i­tude to edi­tors from around the world, with spe­cif­ic thanks to Maja Nikolic and Ele­na San­to­gade at Writ­ers House for their insight­ful guid­ance and edi­to­r­i­al exper­tise. Kassie Eva­shevs­ki, rep­re­sent­ing UTA on the West Coast, is also thanked for her role in sup­port­ing the author’s career and facil­i­tat­ing impor­tant con­nec­tions in the lit­er­ary and enter­tain­ment indus­tries. The author’s agent, Daniel Lazar at Writ­ers House, is acknowl­edged for his tire­less work and con­stant ded­i­ca­tion, often work­ing late into the night, ensur­ing that the author’s voice and sto­ry were rep­re­sent­ed to the best of his abil­i­ty. Final­ly, the author extends deep appre­ci­a­tion to edi­tor Alisha Niehaus, who struck the per­fect bal­ance between moti­va­tion and encour­age­ment, always push­ing the author for­ward while pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary emo­tion­al sup­port to keep mov­ing through the chal­lenges of the writ­ing process.

This sec­tion of acknowl­edg­ments is a tes­ta­ment to the strength of col­lab­o­ra­tion in the cre­ative world. The author’s jour­ney is not one of soli­tary achieve­ment but rather one shaped by a net­work of ded­i­cat­ed pro­fes­sion­als, friends, and sup­port­ers who have all con­tributed in their own ways. From the small­est ges­tures of kind­ness to the largest pro­fes­sion­al con­tri­bu­tions, the acknowl­edg­ments serve as a reminder that the cre­ation of a work of art is rarely ever a sin­gle-hand­ed endeav­or. The grat­i­tude expressed here goes beyond mere words—it high­lights the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ty, the strength of part­ner­ships, and the pow­er of shared pas­sion. Each per­son men­tioned in these acknowl­edg­ments played an essen­tial role in help­ing the author bring their vision to life, ensur­ing that the sto­ry not only made it into the world but also res­onat­ed with read­ers on a deep lev­el.