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In The Proving Ground, Kevin moves to a small rural town when his father, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, is transferred to the Proving Ground (a military base where they proof test ammunition). Kevin figures he's going to have some trouble fitting in, but he has no idea how much.
Everybody in town
resents the military because of the way the government appropriated the farmland to build the Proving Ground, especially Charley Hansen. She doesn't care that Kevin has a crush on her - she only knows he's military, and the military stole her great-grandfather's home.
While Kevin struggles to find a way to change Charley's mind about him, he finds himself in the deserted Proving Ground one day when the base comes under unexpected attack - an attack that could result in disaster for the whole town, not just the military base.
For Kevin, the Proving Ground is no longer only the base where his father works. It becomes the place where he must decide what he believes in, and whether or not he has the courage to stand up for it.
I wrote The Proving Ground after my husband, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, was transferred to a Proving Ground in the Midwest. Although I didn't suffer exactly the same hostility that Kevin does in the book, I found the town a tough place to call home. I also remembered moving several times when I was a kid, and I recalled how hard it could be to fit in. This book gave me a chance to explore that difficulty.
In writing the book I wanted to give Kevin a pet to confide in. I have hamsters, so I decided to give Kevin a small hamster with the military-sounding name of Hannibal. When Kevin must choose to stand up for what he believes, Hannibal helps him make the tough decision.