The Reading Warehouse

In a single night--graduation night--Thomas has to decide: do what everyone has always expected of him, or forge an entirely new path? Bryan Bliss's absorbing examination of one boy struggling with expectations and realities will appeal to readers of Sara Zarr and Chris Crutcher.

Thomas is supposed to leave for the Army in the morning. His father was Army. His brother, Jake, is Army--is a hero, even, with the medals to prove it. Everyone expects Thomas to follow in that fine tradition. But Jake came back from overseas a completely different person, and that has shaken Thomas's certainty about his own future. And so when his long-estranged friend Mallory suggests one last night of adventure, Thomas takes her up on the distraction. Over the course of this single night, Thomas will lose, find, resolve, doubt, drive, explore, and leap off a bridge. He'll also face the truth of his brother's post-traumatic stress disorder and of his own courage. In Bryan Bliss's deft hands, graduation night becomes a night to find yourself, to find each other, to find a path, and to know that you always have a place--and people--to come back to.

Bryan Bliss is the author of We'll Fly Away, Meet Me Here, and No Parking at the End Times. He holds master's degrees in theology and fiction and works as a curriculum designer and developer. His nonfiction has been published in Image Journal, along with various other newspapers, magazines, and blogs. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and two children.