Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Book review - Vega's Piece of the Sky

 

Title: Vega's Piece of the Sky

Author: Jennifer Torres

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: Out There by Seaerra Miller

                      The Thirteenth Circle by MarcyKate Connolly

Rating:

quick and pleasant

Summary (provided by publisher): The space rock is just the latest thing to land, uninvited, in Vega Lucero’s road-stop hometown. But when she discovers how much a chunk of the meteorite might be worth, she realizes it’s exactly the treasure she’s been hoping to find—and maybe a way to convince her mom not to sell the family store to big city developers to help pay for her grandpa Tata's medical expenses.
Determined to find more pieces of the sky somewhere in the perilous desert wilderness, stubbornly independent Vega must set aside her distrust of outsiders to team up with Jasper, a would-be rival—and her own tagalong cousin Mila—on an overnight adventure to find more meteorites before the professional hunters who have descended on Date City do. But along the way, she realizes that she's not the only one with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Jasper and Mila have secrets and worries of their own that has brought them on this journey.
Together, this ragtag group will battle against coyotes, a flood, and scorpions. But what they will ultimately discover is that no treasure is big enough to prevent unwelcome change. Only family and friends can help weather the unexpected that life brings.

My opinion: This book is well suited to middle graders. It reads reasonably quickly and is easy to follow. The characters are reasonably well developed and distinct. Each of the three perspective characters - Vega, Mila, and Jasper - has a clear motivation and flaw and these elements directly affect the plot as they trek through the desert in search of meteorite fragments. With a satisfying and realistic conclusion, this book may not be rocking any worlds but its a solid experience.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

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