Tess gave her a look, then explained, “Frankie, what we’re asking is: What if the missing student is Colette?”

I stared at her without saying anything because that idea really didn’t make sense to me—since I obviously didn’t know at the time that the missing student was Colette and since I’d been mostly thinking that it felt strange being told to go home when I’d just gotten to school. This was not my normal routine.

“Come on,” Mia said, pulling on Tess’s arm, “let’s go see if the teachers need help.”

acknowledgments

Paper Heart would not have happened without my longtime agent, Dan Lazar, and brilliant editor Stacey Barney. Thank you both for your encouragement, humor, and grace—especially during the nightmare year that was 2020. A huge thank-you, too, to Cecilia de la Campa and Torie Doherty-Munro at Writers House, and Caitlin Tutterow, Eileen Savage, Vanessa DeJesús, and the entire marketing team at G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Mad love forever times infinity to Jen Klonsky.

I’d also like to thank my home state of Wyoming and the town of Pinedale for being such a beautiful backdrop for this story. Reader, I hope you enjoyed getting to know a part of the country that is incredibly special to me.

Thank you to family and friends near and far for your ongoing support. J, C, and L, you are my whole heart. Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for letting me borrow the cabin for a few hundred pages. Even more than the other books, I wish you could have read this one.

Thank you, always, to my readers. And to the teachers and librarians—you are superheroes. Thank you for your dedication to the communities you serve.

Finally, you with the Mean Brain, thank you for raising your hand when you need help. Thank you for your perseverance and hanging in through hard things. Thank you for managing not to listen sometimes. You are so much stronger than you know.

about the author

Cat Patrick is the author of Tornado Brain, a critically acclaimed Summer 2020 Kids' Indie Next List selection, and several books for young adults, including Forgotten, Revived, and The Originals.

Cat lives outside of Seattle with her family but was born and raised in Wyoming. You can find her online at catpatrick.com.

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