VEGA'S PIECE OF THE SKY

Summer plans take a turn when a chunk of sky lands at a girl’s feet.

Vega is a headstrong Latine girl growing up on the edge of the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley. She’s trying to get through summer vacation with her quiet, perpetually anxious prima, Mila, who was sent from Los Angeles to stay for the summer to keep her out of trouble. Though Mila’s anxieties are more apparent, Vega has worries of her own—about her older brother (who’s moving away for college), Tata (who’s recovering from his broken hip), and whether the family business, the Lone Star Market, can stay afloat. When the universe dumps a space rock at her feet—and she learns how valuable it might be—Vega sneaks off on a quest to find more meteorites in the barren desert just beyond her home, accompanied by Jasper, the son of a rockhound with his own hidden motives. Mila secretly follows them. As the desert throws its worst at the three compatriots, from scorpions to coyotes to flash-flooding arroyos, the narrative shifts among Vega’s first-person perspective and Jasper’s and Mila’s third-person views. In order to find their meteorite treasure and get home safely, the kids must share their baggage, both literal and figurative. The fast-paced read is a classic summer coming-of-age story with plenty of adventure and heart.

As in all good quests, the story’s true treasures are the relationships formed along the way.