To Brenda Drake and Pitch Wars for giving me my mentors, the 2014’s, and Pit Mad, the contest where I found my amazing agent. You’ve done so much for so many, thank you.
Lastly, eternal praises, love, and thanks to my family: the hearts that beat alongside my heart. Goodness, here come the tears. Breathe, Kristin, breathe!
To my mother, who showed me the true meaning of bravery and how deeply one can love. Not a day goes by that I am not missing you. To my grandmother, the quiet warrior who saved me in every way one can be saved and who, by some divine miracle, never gave up on me: thank you for loving me anyway. To Hugh and Mark, my uncles, my brothers, thank you for always being there for me, you big goofy things, I love and cherish you more than you know. To Alex, thank you for your continuous love, generosity, and support.
To Bob, who always believed in my dream, even when it seemed impossible. I love you for that and so much more. Thank you (so many miles). And to the epitome of my life’s work, my strange and wonderful children, Michael, Jonah, Liam, Ava, and Indy, who light me up when my fires go out. I love you more than words, and there is no monster in any world I wouldn’t fight to get to you.
To Cecelia, the friend I needed as a child and found as an adult, thank you for finding me at just the right time—on my knees, ready to give up writing forever, and for holding my hand in the dark and showing me the way.
Finally, thank you to grief, the root from which this book was born. You taught me pens are magic. Light is born from darkness. Tears are powerful. And, perhaps most important, you showed me that love is like a wildflower, simple and abundant, able to grow in the most desolate places, and that even when they’re ripped from the earth, they leave holes that hold their memory and always, from this emptiness, new wildflowers grow.
Thank you all from the depths of my own wild heart.
About the Author
Author photo © Melissa Mullen Photography
K. A. REYNOLDS is a poet and author from Winnipeg, Canada, currently residing in the wilds of Maine. Her superpowers include risqué Mad Libs, smiling, and saving spiders from certain peril. When not typing, daydreaming, or caring for the elderly, she enjoys swapping bad jokes with her numerous offspring, herding various furry beasts, and reading strange and colorful tales expertly crafted by other imagination astronauts in love with words. Visit her at www.kareynoldsbooks.com.
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Copyright
THE LAND OF YESTERDAY. Text copyright © 2018 by K. A. Reynolds. Illustrations by Jensine Eckwall. 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.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art by Helen Musselwhite
Cover design by Jessie Gang
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959283
Digital Edition JULY 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-267394-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-267392-3 (trade bdg.)
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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