Shooting Monarchs [Paperback]

Macy grew up unwanted, unloved, and alone. By his teens he had quit school and begun stealing. In and out of juvie, Macy is a shoplifter, a car thief, and, by age eighteen, a murderer.

Danny grew up physically disabled, raised by his grandmother, and a loner. Now sixteen, he finds solace in taking photographs, particularly of monarch butterflies, and thinking about Leah, the most beautiful girl in town.

It is Leah who unwittingly causes these two very different boys, who share some startling similarities, to meet in a first and final terrifying encounter.

The outcome of this hard-hitting and spellbinding novel from an exciting new author will rivet readers and leave them thinking about nature, nurture, justice, and the remarkable power of human kindness.John Halliday is the author of Shooting Monarchs, a Simon & Schuster book.Chapter 1: A Thanksgiving Turkey

He was born during the Thanksgiving Day parade. His mother didn't want to miss seeing the big balloons, so she made the nurse haul a TV into the delivery room. While the boy entered the world, his mother stared at a gigantic inflated Snoopy bobbing across the TV screen.

It's like a miracle, she exclaimed. The doctor and nurse just shook their heads, seeing she meant the balloon, not the baby.

What name should we put on the birth certificate? the nurse asked.

The mother continued looking at the TV and said, Macys.

The nurse glanced at the TV and asked, You mean you want to name him after a department store?

Is there something wrong with that? the mother responded belligerently.

I guess there's no law against it, the nurse said with a shrug, but when she filled out the paperwork, she decided to leave the s off.

To his mother, Macy was just another mistake. He was a reminder, like her smoking habit and lack of high school diploma, of bad choices she had made. I never wanted you in the first place, she frequently toldlÓg