My thanks to Kathi Appelt, Anne Bustard, Tim Crow, Esther Hershenhorn, Sean Petrie, and Greg Leitich Smith, the early readers/advisers of a manuscript called Carousel. The only surviving element of this re-envisioning is the carousel itself, and even it haunts in a new way. Thank you for helping me grow into the writer who could tell the story this was meant to be.
What’s more, I tip my cowgirl hat to fellow writers Emlyn Addison, Chris Barton, H. Scott Beazley, Gene Brenek, Bethany Hegedus, Jane Kurtz, and Melissa Wiley, as well as to the Bigheart family of Austin. Thanks for buying a ticket to this fantastical ride.
As ever, I likewise remain in awe of the gracious guidance of my agent, Ginger, the diligence of her assistant, Mina, and their razor-sharp comrades-at-arms at Curtis Brown.
And of course I bow gratefully to the genius of my editor, Deb, the enthusiastic support of her assistant, Carter, and the formidable teams at both Candlewick Press and Walker Books.
www.candlewick.com
www.candlewick.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Epigraph © 1987 by Robert A. Heinlein
© 2003 by The Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust, reprinted with permission by The Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust
Cover photographs: copyright © 2014 by Stephen D Harper/Getty Images (carousel);
copyright © 2014 by Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images (cat);
copyright © 2014 by Andrey Prokhorov/istockphoto.com (branches)
Photographs on title page copyright © Image Farm Inc.
First electronic edition 2014
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2013946609
ISBN 978-0-7636-5910-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-7040-5 (electronic)
Candlewick Press
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