What Came from the Stars — Gary D. Schmidt

The peaceful civilization of Valorim is under siege ... It's about to fall to the dark Lord Mondus. In a panic, a few heroes bind all their world's beauty into one precious necklace and send it across the cosmos, hurtling past a trillion lighted stars ... all the way into the 'lunch box of sixth-grader Tommy Pepper of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Tommy puts it on, and soon he starts doodling pictures of the twin suns of Valorim and hearing strange music. But at first, he is too preoccupied to notice; his mother died recently, his sister isn't speaking, and his father is fighting a real estate agency to keep their home. But when strange minions of Lord Mondus begin ransacking Plymouth, Tommy realizes he must protect his family from villains more dangerous than a vengeful realtor and her bus-stop-bully daughter. Gary D. Schmidt masterfully presents the epic story of a family trying to redefine itself in the wake of tragedy.