Quintessence

A 2021 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book
A Bank Street Best Book of 2021

Quintessence is an extraordinary story from Jess Redman about friendship, self-discovery, interconnectedness, and the inexplicable elements that make you you.

Three months ago, twelve-year-old Alma moved to the town of Four Points. Her panic attacks started a week later, and they havent stopped--even though shes told her parents that they have. Shes homesick and friendless and every day she feels less and less like herself.

But one day she finds a telescope in the towns junk shop, and through its lens, she watches a star--a star that looks like a child--fall from the sky and into her backyard. Alma knows what its like to be lost and afraid, to long for home, and she knows that its up to her to save the star. And so, with the help of some unlikely new friends from Astronomy Club, she sets out on a quest that will take a little bit of science, a little bit of magic, and her whole self.

This title has Common Core connections.