This is a tale that, as I described it to my husband, he exclaimed: "Like a middle grade Last Airbender?"
I hadn't quite thought of it that way while I was reading, but it does feature elemental magic -- water, wind, earth and fire -- and of course the fire is what binds everything together.
Alma moves to Four Points when her parents take jobs there and retreats into her own shell shortly thereafter. Panic attacks quickly descend when she tries to leave the house. It's not until she stops by a curio shop, a sort of last-stop for broken and damaged things, that she comes out of her shell long enough to take the quintescope from the shopkeeper and bolt home again.
When she turns it to the night sky, however, she sees a falling star -- but not just a star, a girl, curled up inside the brilliance of the falling star, catapulting to earth -- and almost in her backyard. She goes outside and discovers the star girl's crater, but the girl runs from her when she tries to help.
In school, Alma walks into a meeting of the astronomy club and meets Hugo, who needs proof before he'll believe her, Shirin, who seems too nice to be true, and a bully, who walks in by mistake (wink, wink!), Marcus.
The shopkeeper has maneuvered all four kids to meet and work together to save the stargirl, because he was once a starling himself, confused and hurt after falling to Earth.
But will the kids find each other, learn how to collect their various elemental magics and locate the stargirl in time to help, or will they be too late?
This was a enjoyable tale of fantasy and a bit of science-fiction.
