Acknowledgments
To everyone at Algonquin Young Readers for believing in my vision for this book, for trusting me to make it happen, and for letting it go where few middle-grade books have gone before, thank you! I feel so incredibly lucky to see my books in your catalog. Krestyna, Elise, Eileen, Sarah, Brunson, Trevor, Brooke, Judit, Lauren, and all my author-siblings: you make me feel like I belong, and I am so grateful that my books are at home here.
I owe a huge debt to Andy Weir and his wonderful, information-laden novel The Martian. I don’t generally read science fiction, but people kept encouraging me to read his book. Finally I relented and read it and I knew, instantly, that this is the book that Ish would have devoured, absorbing and rearranging the facts as she saw fit. It is exactly the kind of “adult” fiction that anyone from a middle-grader (although not the intended audience!) to an adult would love: densely packed with facts, full of action, and so compelling. It’s the exact book that I would have taken from my Dad’s bookshelf at eleven or twelve and read under the covers with a flashlight. I needed for Ish to have a fulcrum to hang her fantasies on, and The Martian became that to her. So thank you Andy Weir for writing exactly the right book at the right time for Mischa Love to fall in love with, for inspiring her (and me) to learn more and to find our own version of Mars, cobbled together with facts, fantasy, and our imaginations.
There are so many scientists, astronomers, researchers, organizations, and authors who unknowingly helped me. I couldn’t name them all if I tried, but I so appreciate them for doing the hard work of analyzing the facts, for presenting information in an understandable way, for continuing to research a future settlement on Mars, despite the fact that so many people think it’s just a pipe dream. The information is everywhere, and the internet is full of resources (sometimes accurate, sometimes conflicting, but always interesting).
This book also would not exist without the help I received from so many other people. To the late Sumant Krishnaswamy, who answered my most elementary questions when I first began; my friends who let me think out loud and work out plot points over drinks, coffee, and on long, woodsy walks; my incredibly supportive and knowledgeable writers’ group; and, last but not least, my amazing agent, Jennifer Laughran—thank you, thank you, thank you!
And, of course, to my readers. I am most of all grateful for you! Let me know what you thought of Ish’s story. You can find me on the internet at karenrivers.com. I love hearing from you! Thank you for reading my book. I hope you liked it.
KELSEY GOODWIN
KAREN RIVERS’s books have been nominated for a wide range of literary awards and have been published in multiple languages. When she’s not writing, reading, or visiting schools, she can usually be found hiking in the forest that flourishes behind her tiny old house in Victoria, British Columbia, where she lives with her two kids, two dogs, and two birds. Find her online at karenrivers.com and on Twitter: @karenrivers.
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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
New York, New York 10014
© 2017 by Karen Rivers.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
eISBN 978-1-61620-715-1