My deepest appreciation to my editor, Wendy Loggia, whose guidance and support have been invaluable; to her assistant, Emily Jacobs, who is always so thoughtful; to my agent, Tracey Adams, for her constant encouragement; and to Christina Biamonte for reading and commenting on a later draft of this book.
Special thanks to Darryl McDonald, who spent hours taking slides of orange groves, migrant workers, and migrant housing to share with me when I couldn’t get back to Florida before my deadline.
My heartfelt gratitude to my husband, Mac, who was born and raised in central Florida, and without whom I would never have known that mustard greens don’t grow in cypress swamps, sandspurs are like nettles, and swamp cabbage is just your garden-variety hearts of palm.
Joyce McDonald earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from Drew University. She is the author of many outstanding novels for teens, including Swallowing Stones, an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults; Shadow People, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age; and Shades of Simon Gray, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. Joyce McDonald lives in a quiet rural town in northwestern New Jersey with her husband and their cats. While she’s never actually read poems in cemeteries, she does share Dove’s passion for poetry.
Published by
Laurel-Leaf
Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
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RL: 4.6
November 2005
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