Review: What Came From the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt

What Came From the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt.

Clarion Books
Publication Date: September 2012
List Price: $16.99
ISBN-13: 9780547612133

Review: Mystery, confusion, and destruction are three words that describe a wonderful book titled What Came from the Stars written by Gary D. Schmidt. In this mystery because many houses are being destroyed and all the police and residents try to find who is behind the destruction. It is confusing, however, because whoever is wrecking the houses is not doing it at the same time or in a noticeable pattern.

At the beginning of the book a necklace travels from another planet, Valorm, which is a civilization of humans with Valorm as its capital, and lands in Tommy Pepper's lunchbox, which belongs to Tommy Pepper. He begins to wear it and he finds himself thinking of different things such as the two suns that the planet has and the O'Mondims Eventually, Tommy's house is broken into, and he and his family have to clean up the mess and fix everything that is broken. Tommy realizes the necklace may have something to do with the chaos, but will he be able to solve the mystery before the town is destroyed?

What Came from the Stars is an amazingly well-written book. I particularly enjoyed reading about when Tommy received his necklace and when the major storm occurs. The necklace added a lot to the book because Tommy has no idea what is happening and everyone laughed at him. I liked the major storm is exciting because he has to build a fire and he plays a Bach musical piece perfectly on the piano. Certain parts were less enjoyable, such as when I couldn't understand a language that Tommy and a fighter from Valorm were speaking to one another. Although Tommy automatically could understand because of the necklace the reader is confused. Overall, What Came from the Stars is amazing; I really enjoyed reading it.

Review written by Dalton (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group for providing a copy of What Came From the Stars for this review.

Have you read What Came From the Stars? How would you rate it?