Cowboy Zack and the monkey from the Muggletown Zoo (Zachary Hamm)

I am happy to dedicate these little books to the real Zachary Hamm and his family, who helped me at a time in my life when I was very sad and they were very kind. His mother and father were good friends of mine. I wrote the story of Cowboy Zachary Hamm in 1988 as a bedtime story for little Zack and his brother Greg. We haven’t seen each other since those days long ago, but I have recently discovered that the real Zachary Hamm is now a Doctoral student in philoso- phy and plans to become a college professor some day. Since I am a college professor myself, I am especially proud of Zachary and I am very pleased to thank him and his family for the many ways they were so helpful to me.