The Book of Bad Things (28 page)

F
IRST
,
I
NEED TO THANK
the whole team at Scholastic Press for the unbelievably attentive work they do, especially my editor and friend Nick Eliopulos, who is a champion of all things odd and offbeat. How many times can I say I would not be writing these books if it weren’t for him? I’m sure I’ll say it again — many, many times.

A huge thank you must go to my agent Barry Goldblatt, whose pep talks and enthusiasm keep me sane through crazy times. And thank you to Tricia Ready for all that she does.

A big hug to my friends and family. I am very lucky to have all of you in my life. I want to send out particular gratitude to my cousins Madison and Gabby. They asked me to put them in this book, and I don’t think they’ll have to look very hard to find themselves in the main characters.

Most of all, I must mention one of the best humans I know. Daniel Villela makes me realize everyday that my life is a
Good Thing
, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

D
AN
P
OBLOCKI
is the author of
The Stone Child
,
The Nightmarys
, and the Mysterious Four series. His recent books,
The Ghost of Graylock
and
The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe
, were Junior Library Guild selections and made the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list in 2013 and 2014. Dan lives in Brooklyn with two scaredy-cats and a growing collection of very creepy toys.

Visit him at
www.danpoblocki.com
.

Copyright © 2014 by Dan Poblocki

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920
.
SCHOLASTIC
,
SCHOLASTIC PRESS
, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

First edition, September 2014

Cover art © 2014 by Shane Rebenschied

Cover design by Christopher Stengel

e-ISBN 978-0-545-64555-3

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.