The Summer I Learned to Fly

A Letter from Author Dana Reinhardt

My mother, like Drew's, owned a gourmet cheese shop when I was growing up, and I spent many of my afternoons and weekends working there. It was a place where I felt at home, where I loved to go and just hang around. And like Drew, at age thirteen I had a much easier time relating to adults than to other kids, so my mother's store offered me a place to be with people I could talk to while escaping the puzzling world of junior high.

Though I did leave the day-old food in the alley, and though it did always disappear, I never found out who took it. That is to say, I didn't find my Emmett there. Real friendship came later for me. It took a while to find the people among whom I could be my true self.

I think of this book as an old-fashioned coming of age story--the kind I really loved when I was a young reader. The kind that's about the moment when we first begin to discover who we are, what matters to us, and what we would risk everything for.

This is my fifth book, but it just might be the closest I've gotten to the book I've always wanted to write, so I hope you enjoy it. Thanks, as always, for giving it a chance.