Author(s): Sonya Spreen Bates

Middle School (Ages 11-14)

This fast-paced intergalactic adventure is a story of family, friendship, and discovering who you really are. When the navigation system on Hali's interplanetary cruiser goes haywire, an ordinary family space holiday turns into a nightmare. They hurtle through space and crash onto a strange, unlisted planet called Earth. Hali Greengard thinks she's a freak. She's a twin from Hexa, a planet where twins are always Daka together. Except for her. She is Luma. The family is welcomed by two of Earth's inhabitants, who call themselves Humans but bear a striking resemblance to Lumas. Hali finds herself strangely comfortable in this unfamiliar world, where her Daka brother stands out like a sore thumb, not her. Soon they discover that space travel is banned on Earth, and they are, in fact, fugitives from the law. Things go from bad to worse when they're spotted by the nosy kids from the farm next door, who report them to their mother, the local cop. With their new friends languishing in jail and an all points alert out on the 'dangerous aliens' (as the Earth authorities have dubbed them), Hali and her family must work quickly to save Liam and Jodi. Along the way they discover that Lumas and Humans might have more in common than they thought.