Cal's life changed in an instant with her mother's cancer diagnosis, but Cal has a daring plan: local legend maintains that a meteorite smashed into a nearby mountaintop, and Cal becomes obsessed with scaling the peak and bringing the mystical artifact home to heal her mother. When she learns that Rosine, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also intends to climb the mountain and find something miraculous herself, Cal reluctantly agrees to team up for the impossible climb, and as their connection deepens, a new kind of magic takes hold. It's an immediately compelling story, full of breathtaking descriptions of the natural world and unafraid to tackle big topics. Cal is allowed a full range of emotions about her situation, from deep love to terrible resentment, and Rosine makes for a remarkable and resilient counterpoint (Mwilelo drew on her own experiences as a refugee to tell Rosine's story). Above all, it's a reminder that life can be imbued with a sense of wonder, even in its most difficult moments.

Two preteens in search of rumored mountain magic tackle peaks of both the emotional and the geological sort.With her alcoholic father serving time and her mom debilitated by cancer, it's not surprising that White 12-year-old Calliope Scott has turned into a sullen, thoroughly unlikable child prone to bad behavior and vicious conversational barbs. Her walls are not high enough to keep out new classmate Rosine Kanambe, recently arrived with her 19-year-old sister from the Democratic Republic of the Congo via a refugee camp in Burundi. As Cal puts it, once repeated rejections and harsh exchanges have given way to solid friendship following a grueling shared climb up a vertical spire enticingly dubbed Mount Meteorite, Rosine is "the superhero of never giving up." Rosine has experienced traumatic losses of her own but serves as the steady, strong example Cal needs to find her feet. Along with incorporating their personal experiences, the co-authors enrich their tale with specific technical details about both rock climbing and, referencing Carl Sagan and the popular saying that "we are made of stardust," the micrometeorites that continually filter down around us. They acknowledge the Covid-19 pandemic by setting their story in an economically stricken New England town whose diverse residents are actively pitching in to support one another. Cal experiences growth throughout the story; Rosine functions primarily as an inciting force.A tribute to the value of a friend willing to pull and push when the going gets rocky. (authors' notes, scientist interview) (Fiction. 10-13)