Baker & Taylor
A teen pacifist who must volunteer for community service in order to graduate and escape her military hometown unexpectedly bonds with a brusque and reclusive young veteran who reveals an astonishing secret. By the award-winning author of The Gallery of Lost Species.

Perseus Publishing

A teenaged pacifist and a PTSD-afflicted Marine form an unexpected bond over a secret buried in a decommissioned nuclear missile silo.

Twyla Jane Lee has one goal. To finish senior year so she can get out of her military hometown of Halo, Montana. But to graduate she needs to complete forty hours of community service, and that means helping out a rude and reclusive former Marine named Gabriel Finch.

A young veteran of the conflicts in the Middle East, Gabriel spends his days holed up in a decommissioned nuclear missile silo on his farm. Twyla assumes he’s just another doomsday prepper, readying his underground shelter for Armageddon. But soon she finds out the truth, and it takes her breath away. In the underground dome, Gabriel is making a mosaic made entirely of ammunition — a dazzling work of art that depicts life before the wars — in Uruk, an ancient city near Baghdad.

While Twyla helps Gabriel finish the mosaic, she convinces him to enter his work in the Museum of Modern Art’s “America’s Next Great Artist” competition, with the aim of winning the $100,000 prize that could save his family farm from bankruptcy and affirm Gabriel’s true calling as an artist. But as public voting for the best entry heats up, the mosaic — and Gabriel — become the target of Halo’s military community, and Twyla finds her own emotions and ideals put to the test, as her dreams, and her understanding of war, are turned upside down.

A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel about a teen facing the collision of love, ideals and uncertainty about her own future.

A teenaged pacifist and a PTSD-afflicted Marine form an unexpected bond over a secret buried in a decommissioned nuclear missile silo.

Twyla Jane Lee has one goal. To finish senior year so she can get out of her military hometown of Halo, Montana. But to graduate, she needs to complete forty hours of community service, and that means helping out a rude and reclusive former Marine named Gabriel Finch.

A young veteran of the conflicts in the Middle East, Gabriel spends his days holed up in a decommissioned nuclear missile silo on his family farm. Twyla assumes he&;s just another doomsday prepper, readying his underground shelter for Armageddon. But soon she finds out the truth, and it takes her breath away.

Gradually the two misfits form a bond, and Twyla begins to unearth the secrets that have left the Marine battling ghosts. Her discoveries force her to question her views on the wars until she realizes that even if she gets out of Halo, she won&;t ever be able to leave Gabriel Finch&;s story behind her.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3

Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.