Bowery Girl (21 page)

BOOKS ARE MADE BY many hands—I wish to thank those who helped in this one: George Nicholson, for creative guidance during many early drafts, and for his incredible support; Sharyn November for incisive editing, awesome ideas, and just being passionate about books and teens in general; Regina Hayes for believing in the story; Eileen Morales and Melanie Bower from the Museum of the City of New York for providing me an opportunity to view the original Jacob Riis lantern slides; and the Tenement Museum for giving us an incredible chance to experience the history and lives of those who once inhabited the Bowery and Lower East Side. Thank you also to Nina Solomita, a great friend, who has been there every step of the way, from concept to plot to paragraph to sentence to semicolon; Brigitte Taylor, for insisting I believe in myself and how I live in the world; and my father, Gary Taylor, for providing me the space in which to write this book, and whose love of books and words I so happily share.

KIM TAYLOR is the author of the novels
Cissy Funk
and
Side Dish
, and the stage adaptation of Helen Zenna Smith's World War I novel,
Not So Quiet
.
Cissy Funk
received the 2002 Willa Cather Literary Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Visit her Web site at
www.kimtaylor.net
.