I freely admit my return to UConn as faculty seven years ago was one of the more daunting challenges I have undertaken in my career, beginning with an interview process that had me teaching in front of people who didn’t know me at all alongside those who knew me from my time as a teaching assistant and graduate student. That challenge having been met—so say my students and colleagues in the Chemistry department—I should have been more prepared for taking on the role as Cecile Hurley’s junior coauthor of Chemistry: Principles and Reactions – but it was even more daunting at first than the challenge of taking on large lecture classes, 21 st century students, and the coordination of teaching assistants! For those TAs who’ve disagreed with Dr. Selampinar and me: I can admit that there were times when Mrs. Hurley and I disagreed on teaching approaches when she was my TA supervisor. That said, the experience of revising a text with her has been a smooth one– probably more so than I would have imagined at the outset. Time tends to level differences, and though we still don’t necessarily see eye to eye on everything, we agreed well enough to present a united front to that other daunting challenge: working with our editors. I’ve not had much military experience but suspect that any number of textbook editors might make excellent drill sergeants! Professor Edward Neth It has been an exercise in putting into words, symbols and figures what I’ve learned from my students over the past seven years (and those at the University of New Haven, Elizabethtown College, Winona State and Bloomsburg Universities, where I have taught before). It’s been an exercise in bridging the traditional and the new and in adapting to the learning styles of the students of the 21 st century. My thanks to Cecile Hurley for her words of wisdom and experience throughout the writing process – I’ve learned much from being part of the development of the seventh edition of what is now Chemistry: Principles and Reactions, by Masterton, Hurley, and Neth. What’s next? Well – it’s time to put the new edition to the “acid test” – to use it in the classroom at UConn (and elsewhere) this fall.