The Island of Dr. Libris (22 page)

I was very fortunate to have two terrific editors from Random House Children’s Books to help me cut out the boring bits and make the magic make sense: Jennifer Arena and Shana Corey.

And before either of them lent me a firm editorial hand, the best first editor in the world gave me all sorts of help: my wife, J. J. Myers.

Speaking of the Myers family, I would also like to thank my agent and cousin-in-law, Eric Myers. Your dad was, and always will be, so very proud of you.

I’d also like to thank everybody at Random House who helped me put this magic trick together: Nicole de las Heras, who has been the brilliant designer for all my Random House books and brought the unbelievably incredible cover illustrator Gilbert Ford to the island; associate publishing director Michelle Nagler; Laura Antonacci and Adrienne
Waintraub, who’ve helped libraries, even the one in Alex-andriaville, Ohio, discover my books; assistant editor and star of the future Paula Sadler; publicist extraordinaire Lydia Finn; and copy chief Alison Kolani (who had to deal with a guy who never aced any of those SAT punctuation tests).

Working on this book, I thought about all those who, through the years, helped me discover the magic of writing.

Mostly, I thought about teachers. Like the one in fourth grade who let me pass around homemade comic books to my classmates.

Or the seventh-grade English teacher who wrote encouragingly in the margins of my composition book, “You will make your living as a writer someday.”

And, most especially, my freshman English teacher at Notre Dame Catholic High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an extremely cool cat named Schaack Van Deusen, who opened my eyes to Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and a world of wonderful writing. He let me know that writing stories and acting in plays with the drama club were just as cool as playing sports.

If it weren’t for these teachers and mentors, this book, and all the others I have written, would never have been possible.

Finally, thanks, once again, to you. As Samuel Johnson so famously said, “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”

CHRIS GRABENSTEIN

is the coauthor (with James Patterson) of the number one
New York Times
bestseller
I Funny.
He is also an award-winning author of books for children and adults, a play-wright, a screenwriter, and a former advertising executive and improvisational comedian. Chris was a writer for Jim Henson’s Muppets and is a past president of the New York chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the CBS TV movie
The Christmas Gift
, starring John Denver. He lives in New York City with his wife, three cats, and a rescue dog named Fred, who starred in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
on Broadway.

You can visit Chris (plus Fred and the cats) at
ChrisGrabenstein.com
. He also loveshearing from readers, so send your email to
[email protected]
.