Glass Towers and Goats

A demented genius, Tildey Starling, fifteen, expelled for unknown reasons from the exclusive, ultra modern, Compton Prodigy College in downtown Chicago, moves at the behest of her therapist, Dr. Hornbloom, to the tiny town of Moab Utah to try being a "normal girl." Here she meets Carmella Blacksnake, a Navajo, also fifteen, who grew up in a hogan near Navajo Mountain without electricity or running water. They become unlikely friends, and with the discovery of a psychotic horse, begin a bold journey unto the unknown.

This is a novel about girl power inspired by the book, No one is Too Small to Make a Difference, by Greta Thunberg. Glass Towers and Goats brings together two characters at the extreme ends of not fitting in. Tildey Starling, her entire life spent on the seventy-seventh story of the Compton Tower in downtown Chicago attending Compton Prodigy College, is preemptorily expelled under a dark cloud of suspicion and sent to Moab Utah, where her therapist, Dr. Hornbloom, has high hopes that trying to be a normal girl in a normal setting along with the new wonder drug Axiargazine will bring about a more polite mode of behavior. Carmella Blacksnake, having lived most of her life at the foot of Navajo Mountain in a hogan without electricity or running water, also moves to Moab and they both begin attending Grand County High School. Hated and despised by the other students, the two find each other and become friends then go on a bold crusade to awaken a sense of urgency among their fellow classmates regarding the necessity of undertaking revolutionary change to avoid climate disaster. Tildey also befriends Acorn, a demented horse, at Carmella's Grandmother's ranch. The three outcasts then together begin a journey of discovery and activism and along the way completely enrage teachers, county commissioners, and the entire Moab business community.

Gary Cox worked for 34 years in the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park as an Archeologist. He now manages a small farm near Egnar Colorado and writes for the Dove Creek Press.