What Came from the Stars

Gary D. Schmidt crosses over to the fantasy genre with his What Came from the Stars. This novel is told in two alternating stories. One in a faraway galaxy where the Valorim people make a last ditch effort to save their culture's arts from the evil Lord Mondus by creating a chain that holds all the beauty of their world and casting it across space where it ultimately lands in sixth grader Tommy Pepper's lunchbox. The second story describes the hurts that Tommy, his little sister, and his father have endured due to his mother's death. Only Tommy knows how badly things ended the last time he saw his mother. He feels like he caused her accident. When Tommy slips the chain necklace on, he can miraculously paint pictures with moving objects and play the beautiful music that his mother loved. Even more special is that he sees his mother and hears her voice clearly. Horrible things begin to happen in his seaside town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Someone from a distant planet is searching for the necklace and will stop at nothing until he gets it. He is leaving destruction in his wake and things become desperate when people end up missing as well. Will Tommy give the necklace back to stop the devastation or will he fight back like a warrior with the help of his close friends? Other great books by Gary Schmidt include Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, First Boy, Trouble, The Wednesday Wars, and Okay for Now (one of my favorite books).