One kid's "dud" rock. One glowing hatchling from the stars. Four middle-schoolers who never meant to start an interstellar rescue mission. Every month, the Meteorite Swap Club meets inside Lakeview's abandoned planetarium to trade space rocks like Pokémon cards. Jules Park keeps the spreadsheets, Rico Alvarez lives for epic trades, science-whiz Mina Patel supplies the gadgets, and conspiracy-loving Tess McCoy films everything for her secret podcast. Then a dull gray fragment cracks open in Jules's bedroom-revealing Nova, a bioluminescent alien larva that hums radio lullabies and snacks on spare pennies. Suddenly, the club's "no adults allowed" rule is the only thing standing between Nova and a shadow agency that wants to claim the creature for itself. Hiding a growing alien means midnight bike chases, junk-yard science projects, and a beacon built from copper coils and a broken telescope-because Nova's family is out there, and if the wrong signal goes up, Earth might get far more than a polite pickup. Friendship, curiosity, and one fragile star-baby hang in the balance. Welcome to The Meteorite Swap Club-where the coolest trade in the universe could cost you the whole planet.
