Thank you also to my children, the little people who make me my most imaginative self. Charlie, you are a beam of sunlight. People want to curl up near you, me included. That wheelchair has never stopped you, and I can’t believe my luck that I get to be your mom. Jonas, if you want to be Jupiter when you grow up, go for it, buddy. And Cora, when you rule the world, please remember your mother, who never made you wear a bow and always let you read as late into the night as you wanted.

Jody, you get my Owen Meany THANK-YOU in all caps, because that’s how grateful I am to be married to you and to raise our crazy family together. I swear we will go to Greece one day.

I’d also like to thank Deb Perelman and Mary Berry, my very favorite chefs. You helped me bake my way through a great many internal and external crises. Because of you, my family is well fed and so is my psyche.

To KJ Dell’Antonia and Jess Lahey, brilliant writers and podcasters extraordinaire: Thank you for your wisdom and wit and everything in between on #amwriting. It’s the best podcast in the land.

And Kristin Tubb, thank you for liking the first pages of that other book enough to read this one. You have a kind and generous heart. Here’s to more coffee dates in our future.

Lastly, I want to acknowledge the children, one in seven, living with a disability. You are all forces to be reckoned with and wonderfully made. You are fighters, and I am honored to write this story for you.

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About the Author

Photo courtesy of Bethany Rogers

Jamie Sumner’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. She loves stories that celebrate the grit and beauty in all kids. She is also the mother to a son with cerebral palsy and lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee. Visit her at jamie-sumner.com.

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Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Simon & Schuster, New York