During the ride back, he traced the engraving on the medal hanging around his neck and thought about pirates. Not flintlock pistols and peg legs and tattered flags, but actual pirates. The ones everybody had warned him about. With busted-up starships and cybernetic arms. Cups of gyurt and code fourteens. Vintage tees and quick getaways and growling guitars. Dirty white robes and bloodstained jackets and hard left hooks.

But as he got closer to his destination, his thoughts stretched further. To mocha milkshakes and chocolate chip pancakes. To patio dinners and magic shows. To sunflowers and cherry trees. To seashells and hilltop picnics and second cups of coffee. To all the things he’d left behind and all that he’d finally come back to.

He thought about these things until he found himself standing outside of his house, staring at the cracked steps leading up to the stone porch. He could see Amos sitting in the windowsill, waiting for him.

Leo looked at the wooden sign hanging on the door. Not the original, of course, but just as good. He pressed his thumb to the scanner and heard the door’s magnetic lock give way. He turned the knob and stepped inside and said, “I’m home.”

Acknowledgments

To be continued . . .

As a kid raised on comic books and television that couldn’t be binged, these three words were just as frustrating and tantalizing as intended. Waiting a week to revisit these heroes and their adventures was intolerable, but that space allowed for untold imaginative gymnastics as I filled the time with stories of my own. After all, the authors and artists had already done all the hard work of building worlds and crafting characters for me to play with.

At least I thought that was the hard work. Writing my first sequel showed me otherwise. Turns out what comes after “to be continued” offers its own challenges: trying to knot the dangling narrative threads, giving beloved characters the closure they deserve, and bringing the ship into port. If I’ve succeeded in the task, it is only thanks to the work of so many who have helped me see Leo and the crew of the Icarus through their journey.

So thank you to Adam’s Literary for a decades-long partnership. Thanks to Aveline Stokart for the perfect cover. Many thanks to David DeWitt, Amy Ryan, Kathryn Silsand, Vaishali Nayek, Emma Meyer, Sammie Brown, Donna Bray, Debbie Kovaks, and everyone else at Walden/Harper for sending this book out into the universe. Thanks to editor extraordinaire Jordan for helping Leo find his way back. My love and gratitude to my friends and family for being my biggest supporters. Also big thanks to all the teachers and librarians who help young readers find their next favorite read.

Finally, though very little of this book takes place on this lovely and fragile miracle of a planet of ours, it is still a celebration of Earth and a call for ensuring its survival in the face of environmental crises. It won’t be easy, but the generations to come deserve unlimited “to be continued”s.