Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to all the people who helped make this book possible. First and foremost, the whole Manning team, especially our fearless development editor, Helen Stergius, and Brian Sawyer and Marjan Bace, for giving two kids a chance. Thanks to all the reviewers whose comments helped make this a better book: Gonzalo Fernando Huerta Cánepa, Jan Vinterberg, Karim Alkama, Khaled Tannir, Larissa Kun, Manjula Iyer, Martin Beer, Meredith Godar, Michael Jensen, Michal Konrad Owsiak, Peter Lawrence, Pavol Kral, Philip Coates, Rebecca Jones, Rocio Chongtay, and Rodney Weis. Thank you to Aleksandar Dragosavljević, Robin Dewson, Gonzalo Fernando Huerta Cánepa, and Matko Hrvatin in development, Corbin Collins, Alyson Brener, Kevin Sullivan, David Novak, Janet Vail, Marija Tudor, Richard Sheppard, Leslie Haimes, and Mary Piergies in production, and Candace Gillhoolley and Susan Harkins in post-production for helping us publish our first book!

Thank you Rick Kughen for being the first person to embrace this book. This book wouldn’t be here without you.

Our friends who cheered us on include Emma, who asked how the book was going almost every day, and James for the Overwatch breaks. Also all our friends at Coderdojo, including Alex, Megan, Ben, and Finn (plus their awesome parents who run the group—Frank and Josh), for brainstorming ideas and giving us coding advice.

We’ve had really great teachers over the years, but we especially want to thank Mrs. Siska for teaching us how to read and Ms. Letina for making us love writing.

Thank you to our family! Grandma, who always lets us use her computer, and Grandpa, who gave us his laptop so we could continue the book. To Saba and Safta for all the love and support, plus Olivia, Penelope, Wendy, Jonathan, Randall, Morgan, and all the other people who sent their cheers along the way.

Thank you to Truman for wheeking through every chapter recording (and being the best piggie) and Linus, who joined our family near the end of the book.

Thank you to Daddy, our Peggy, who was the hidden member of our team. You may not see his words in these pages, but his love feeds our creativity and energy. He gives hugs when we’re frustrated, knows the right words to say when we’re overwhelmed, and makes us laugh with his questions. (Plus he watches Buffy with us after a long day’s work.)

Thank you to Mommy. If you hadn’t decided to be an author, we wouldn’t have gotten a chance to become authors, too. You helped us get this book deal and you typed up all of this. You are the coolest mother. Thank you for helping us organize our thoughts, turn in pages on time, and for turning an after-school thought into a reality. You taught us how to handle a time-sensitive, high-pressure work environment.

And now to switch gears, this is Gabriel, and I want to thank Sadie for giving me amazing artwork to turn into games and for being a comforting sister throughout the book. I loved working with you on this.

But wait! This is Sadie, and I want to thank my very smart twin brother, Gabriel. It has been fantastic to work with you. Thank you for making fun games for the book. I’m grateful you’re my brother.

And finally, this is Melissa. Thank you to Sadie and Gabriel for teaching me Scratch through your wonderful book. Your dad and I are so honored that we get a front row seat to watch you grow up, and you constantly amaze us with your ideas and energy. You are the coolest kids I ever met—from the time when you plucked a loose tooth out of your mouth and kept on interviewing, to teaching people how to make a browser in Java, to being the best travel partners in the world. Here’s to many more work meetings at Carmen’s. I love you and can’t wait to see what you do next.