Zera and the Green Man

It’s Zera’s fifteenth birthday, but she’s finding little to celebrate.

Zera’s uncle and guardian, “the Toad,” and his girlfriend, Tiffany, are dragging Zera to the grand opening of a GMO fast-food restaurant. On the menu are a few of the Toad’s creations, including “beefy fries,” created from potatoes engineered with the genes of a cow; potatoes that bleed when sliced and cooked.

As if a nauseating meal out weren’t bad enough, Zera’s in trouble at school for a prank she didn’t do — and her classmates think she is a freak.

The single light in her birthday will be a gift from her grandmother. A gift that will lead her to uncovering her family’s centuries-old mystical connection to nature — a gift that will lead her to the battle of her life.