But of course it had been real. A small, extraordinary moment, the kind that dots the path of each of our lives every now and again like a smooth, shining bead, placed there, I guess, to remind you that even if you’re just an ordinary neighborhood girl, there is no such thing as an ordinary life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thank-you to Barry Goldblatt, for believing in this book based on fifty rough pages and for helping me to figure out what it was. Deep gratitude to Alexandra Cooper, for the love and attention you bestowed on every single word of this manuscript, and to everyone on the incredible team at HarperCollins, particularly Rosemary Brosnan and Alyssa Miele, and to David Curtis for the beautiful cover.
Thank you to Kaylee Kreutz, Katie Whitman, Samantha Heneghan, Sidney Burns, Meg Duggan, Kasia McCormick, Marty McGivern, Michelle Hynes, Elizabeth Brogan, Paula Jops, Alicia Pilarski, Theresa Cowen, Tim Padar, Sean Driskill, and Bridget Quinlan, for sharing your friendship and expertise with me on a host of random matters that made their way into this novel. A special thank-you to Don DeGrazia and Matt Martin, who gave my writing an audience through their reading series, Come Home Chicago, and whose feedback on the first few chapters of this book was invaluable.
Thank you to Dr. Kathy Burke, who gave me my first-ever publishing credit for a short story I wrote in her creative writing elective (despite its questionable literary merit). You were exactly the teacher I needed when I was seventeen.
Thank you to the 1,000+ students I had the privilege of teaching during my years at Loyola Academy and Taft High School. I could never write books for young adults had it not been for the time I spent with each of you. And thank you to my amazing colleagues at both of these schools, from whom I learned so much (and shared many a spicy chicken patty). Teacher friends are the best kind of friends (Katie Seeberg and Colleen Walsh, I’m looking at you).
Unending gratitude to my family—the Morrisons, Brennans, and Gillespies, all those generations of Chicago Catholic school kids without whom I could never have imagined this book. Love most of all to Dan, Nora, Mom, and Dad. All the good that’s in me comes from you.
To my three daughters, who are goodness distilled, you are my greatest pride. And to Denis, my love: I have spread my dreams under your feet. Everything is possible because of you.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Barbie Lee Photography
JESSIE ANN FOLEY is a teacher who writes fiction for young adults. Her debut novel, The Carnival at Bray, was a Printz Honor winner, a William C. Morris Debut Award finalist, a YALSA Top Ten Fiction for Young Adults title, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book. Neighborhood Girls is her second novel. To learn more about Jessie, visit her online at www.jessieannfoley.com.
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BOOKS BY JESSIE ANN FOLEY
Neighborhood Girls
CREDITS
Cover art by David Curtis
Cover design by Catherine San Juan
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
NEIGHBORHOOD GIRLS. Copyright © 2017 by Jessie Ann Foley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text 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 HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939014
ISBN 978-0-06-257185-4
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FIRST EDITION
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