When you write a novel, or even a middle grade nonfiction book, you get some space in the actual book to acknowledge, and thank, some of the many people who helped make the book possible. Picture books don’t really have the real estate inside them…

But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t an entire community of people who helped me get “Red and Green and Blue and White,” my debut picture book, out of my head, onto the page, and ultimately into the world! And, for a story all about the power of community, I want to take this opportunity to shout out to members of my community that helped make this book everything I hoped it might be… and more!

Yapha Mason, librarian extraordinaire and friend, thank you for the idea of telling the story of what happened in Billings, Montana in December 1993 as a picture book for little kids.

Thank you to the nonprofits Facing History and Ourselves, Not in Our Town, Riahn and the Working Group team that produced the PBS documentary “Not in Our Town,” the staff at the Billings Gazette for both the news coverage and editorials they ran in Dec 1993, the reporters who covered the story in the New York Times and NPR and elsewhere, and the Los Angeles Public Library librarians who helped me with research.

Tammie Schnitzer Ahmadieh (Isaac’s mom) thank you for your kind feedback and input, both back in 2014 and since the book has been published. (Thrilled that you got to read it with your grandkids!)

Gail, Lesley, Denise, April, Ann, Michael, Camille, Ceran, and Barbara, thank you for your feedback on multiple early drafts of the manuscript in late 2013 and early 2014.

Jane Yolen, thank you for the wonderful suggestion to let the poems build rather than repeat fully each time — an absolute breakthrough moment in writing this.

Marietta Zacker, my amazing agent, thank you for believing in me and knowing the perfect home for this…

Arthur A. Levine, thank you for being that perfect editor and publisher home, with your brave and awesome new indie publishing house, Levine Querido.

Paul O. Zelinksy, thank you for illustrating my manuscript and making it OUR book. It is glorious, and I will be forever grateful that we get to share this story.

Isaac Schnitzer, who is now all grown up and has children the age he was when all this happened to him… Thank you for connecting and letting me share this fictionalized version of what happened in your childhood so you could share it with your kids!

Thank you to the Levine Querido team who made a beautiful book and are marketing and publicizing the heck out of it! Thank you Antonio for the marketing magic, thank you also Irene, Madelyn, Alex, everyone else at LQ, and as well to Eva Zimmerman for the PR mojo.

Thank you to the bookstores that have gotten behind the book, including: Pages in Manhattan Beach, California; Warwicks in San Diego, California; Books of Wonder in New York City; Anderson’s Bookshop in Chicago; Blue Willow Bookstore in Texas; Belmont Books in Massachusetts; Barnes & Noble; and the Open Book Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Thank you to my friends and colleagues for your support and cheerleading. If I start listing names I’m going to leave someone out, and you know how I hate leaving anyone out. Please know how much you mean to me.

My incredible daughter, who is now in college. I started writing picture book manuscripts, seriously, when you were one year old. And I kept thinking, it would be so cool to have a published picture book to share with you… Well, it took 17 years, and you’ve kind of outgrown the picture book phase… but then again, I still love picture books. Red and Green and Blue and White is dedicated to you.

My husband Mark. Thank you for the love, and the wings…

And you, my community. I’m grateful that you’re sharing the journey – this wild adventure – with me. Thank you all.

The light in me recognizes, acknowledges, and celebrates the light in you,
Lee