I’m the son of two constantly worried and freaked-out parents.
I’m a guitarist.
Sometimes I’m a seal.
I’m a friend of Agnes Oakes.
I am all these things, and as my life goes on, I’ll probably change a lot and be a bunch of other things, too, just like anyone else.
Right now, I’m a boy with a long squid arm that I use to deposit my very growly dog back in my room.
And immediately after that, I’m a screech owl, taking flight from my roof and soaring on warm updrafts above turquoise backyard swimming pools.
I’m a person, which means I’m too complicated to sum up in even a million words.
But I can do it in one.
I’m me.
Acknowledgments
My name is on the cover, but without the work and help of a lot of people, there would be no book. It would just be my name, floating in space. Which would be weird. So, I would like to thank those who made everything less weird.
At HarperCollins, thanks to:
Erica Sussman, my patient editor, whose judgment and sense made this book so much better.
Tom Clohosy Cole for his beautiful, eerie, and evocative cover illustration.
Chris Kwon and Alison Kapthor, whose design skills turned a wonderful cover into a wonderful-looking book.
Deanna Hoak and Jessica Berg for catching errors, deviation from typographical norms, missing words, and inconsistencies.
Louisa Currigan and Stephanie Guerdan for the editorial work that helped turn my story into a book.
Nellie Kurtzman, Robby Imfeld, and Audrey Diestelkamp for their unfairly invisible but absolutely crucial work marketing this book.
Mitch Thorpe, publicist, without whom so many fewer people would know this book even exists.
At Root Literary, thanks to:
Holly Root for guidance, reassurance, commiseration, and laser-eyed focus on my interests.
Melanie Castillo and Alyssa Moore for boosting my work and all the dozens of tasks that help a writer sleep securely at night, knowing things are being taken care of.
At the water cooler, thanks to:
Jenn Reese and Sarah Prineas for helping me with earlier drafts of this book and listening to my incessant whining.
Hans Haas of Wavelength Brewing Company in Vista, California, for telling me how concert venue sound systems work. If I got it wrong, it’s not his fault.
At home, thanks to:
Lisa Will, my best friend, partner in all things, wife, and all-around awesome human being.
Dozer, fuzzy beast creature.
Amelia, other fuzzy beast creature, whose personality is depicted in the character of Growler.
About the Author
Courtesy Greg van Eekhout
GREG VAN EEKHOUT is the author of Voyage of the Dogs and Cog. He lives in San Diego, California, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice-cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he’s ever actually liked.
You can find more about Greg at his website: www.writingandsnacks.com.
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Books by Greg van Eekhout
Voyage of the Dogs
Cog
Copyright
WEIRD KID. Copyright © 2021 by Greg van Eekhout. 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 © 2021 BY TOM CLOHOSY COLE
COVER DESIGN BY CHRIS KWON
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: van Eekhout, Greg, author.
Title: Weird kid / Greg van Eekhout.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2021. | Audience: Ages 8-12. | Audience: Grades 4-6. | Summary: Jake Foster, a shapeshifting alien of goo disguised as a human, and his spunky friend Agnes investigate the mysterious takeover of their neighbors by “imblobsters” and uncover the reason Jake is losing control of his ability to keep his human shape.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020040566 | ISBN 978-0-06297060-2 (hardcover)
Subjects: CYAC: Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Shapeshifting—Fiction. | Humorous stories.
Classification: LCC PZ7.V2744 We 2021 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040566
* * *
Digital Edition JULY 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-297062-6
Version 06102021
Print ISBN: 978-0-06297060-2
2122232425PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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