What Came from the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt

 Tommy is trying to hide the dorky lunch box his grandmother gave him for his birthday, when he finds a strange necklace inside.  It seems to change and morph in his hands, and when he puts it on, he gains access to the memories and skills of an all-but-extinct race from a different planet.  As Tommy experiments with his new abilities, others are looking for the necklace, and not for noble purposes.  As inimical forces pressure Tommy to give up the necklace Tommy has to decide what he will be willing to sacrifice to save a people he understands intimately, but never met. 

This is a very interesting and original book.  Schmidt intersperses chapters from Tommy's life with ones from the foreign planet.  The ones from the other planet are written in a grand, epic style, reminding me a little of the style of Beowulf, and the chapters about Tommy are written in normal narrative style.  As the two cultures come together, the author switches more freely between the two styles.  It is very clever, but what else would I expect from Gary Schmidt?  Like all Schmidt's books, this one has a lot of heart, with a very sweet relationship between Tommy and his sister as both deal with the death of their mother.  I also liked the friendships between Tommy and his classmates. Mostly, I liked that it is different, not like all the other middle-grade fantasy/sci-fi I have read before. This, like The First Boy, is one of Schmidt's earlier books, and didn't quite have the impact of OK for Now, but it came close. (294 p. 2012)