The Girl Who Drank the Moon (30 page)

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is lonely. No one writes a book alone. These things sound incongruous, but both are true. Every day, I sat at my desk by myself, wrestling with dead wizards and sorrow eaters and ruined castles and impertinent eleven-year-olds and swamp monsters who should know better. Some days this work was easy. Most days it was hard. These struggles were mine alone—but I had help. Here are the people who helped me:

• Anne Ursu—idea midwife, calmer-downer, and salve of my soul.
  
• The Black Sheep—Bryan Bliss, Steve Brezenoff, Jodi Chromey, Karlyn Coleman, Christopher Lincoln, and Kurtis Scaletta. You know why.
  
• The McKnight Foundation, for making things easy for a little while.
  
• The children's literature community of Minnesota. Seriously. We could populate several small towns.
  
• Elise Howard, who is a lovely genius and a better editor than I deserve; who insisted that I write this book sooner rather than later; and who is right about all things.
  
• Steven Malk—man of mystery. One of my favorite humans. Literary agents have super powers—I am completely convinced of this. I'm so lucky to have his eyes and ears and brain and relentless enthusiasm pushing my work ever forward.
  

BRUCE SILCOX

Kelly Barnhill
lives in Minnesota with her husband and three children. Like
The Witch's Boy,
her debut novel,
The Mostly True Story of Jack,
received four starred reviews. Her second book,
Iron Hearted Violet,
was a Parents' Choice Gold Award winner and an André Norton Award finalist. Visit Kelly Barnhill online at
kellybarnhill.wordpress.com
and on Twitter:
@kellybarnhill
.

Published by

Algonquin Young Readers

an imprint of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Post Office Box 2225

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of

Workman Publishing

225 Varick Street

New York, New York 10014

© 2016 by Kelly Barnhill.

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

eISBN 978-1-61620-656-7