I promised myself long ago that I would never put an introduction in a book I wrote. But here I am doing that very thing. Life is so sad, isn't it? 

Why read this book:

I wrote this book to be a small but feisty story for readers on a budget. What that means is you can read this book and not spend a huge amount of time and effort doing so. This book has less than three hundred pages of widely spaced type and can be read in under two hours. No further work is necessary. 

If at any point you aren't happy with your reading experience, you may come to my house and show me. If you can prove that your book has poor character development, predictable plot, or too many typos, I will refund your money with the cash I happen to have in my pocket at the time.

However, I will not refund your money if you don’t like my illustrations. I drew them all myself and I like them. So there. 

How to read this book:

Honestly, I’m not sure why this section is here because everybody knows how to read a book, but it seemed like I had to write it after I put in “why read this book.” 

This book has eighteen chapters. Each of the chapter titles, if read together, can tell you a little about what is happening in the story. It’s just a little thing I put in there. 

What this book is about:

The last two books I wrote were called The Fallacy Detectiveand The Thinking Toolbox. They taught critical thinking skills to unsuspecting teenagers. 

This book is verydifferent. If you read it, you will learn absolutely nothing about logical fallacies or the school subject called "logic." 

This book is about friendship. 

I have heard that my brain cannot picture the number one million. It’s too big a number to hold inside my head and think about at one time. Just the same, I don’t think I can hold in my head the total value of a friendship. There are so many days, hours, and minutes that I spend with someone that add up to a friendship. And I find each moment very valuable. 

I am the person I am today because of the friends I have spent time with. I hold the value of those friendships inside me forever. 

Over the course of this book, Archer and Zowie will battle dark matter, babysitters, teleporting microwave ovens, big penguin aliens, and even the author of this book just to be together as friends. 

The right friends can free us to be ourselves. 

I hope you enjoy. 

Hans Bluedorn