ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research for the Kingdom Keepers books continues to branch out and expand with each new book in the series. My world is expanding at the same rate as that of the Keepers. It’s a cliché that you can’t do a project without certain people, but it remains a fact. I’m indebted to hours and hours (days and weeks in some cases) from any and all of the following. Each of these people brings with them the knowledge of colleagues and the help of assistants, either too many to name, or those who wish to remain anonymous. But it takes a Kingdom to make these novels. So, in no particular order thank you to those at Disney: Laura Simpson, Chris Ostrander, Megan Fuchs, Alex Wright, Scott Otis, Richard Fleming, Sam Medina, Jerry Coleman, Les Frey, Cindy Johnson, Alisha Huettig, and Jessica Ward.

And it takes others to turn the research and my stories into actual books and book tours and research travel and a million e-mails and Google searches, and on and on. So, thanks to Amy Berkower and Dan Conaway at Writers House; Matthew Snyder at CAA; Wendy Lefkon, my Disney Books editor and dear friend; Jennifer Levine and Deborah Bass, publicity; Lisa Laird, speaking agent; my office manager of fourteen years, Nancy Litzinger Zastrow St. Louis. To David and Laurel Walters, who have actual day jobs, but who make the time in insanely busy lives to still copyedit repeated drafts. And to Dave Barry, who may not want anything to do with these books for all I know, but affects all of my work nonetheless—he really is the smartest man in the room.

Special thanks to Genevieve Gagne-Hawes for her thorough story and character editing during the multiple revisions of the book. Gen, you are a real Keeper.

For those I’ve forgotten, I haven’t actually forgotten you or the help you’ve provided, only your names…No lawsuits please.

—Ridley Pearson

2011