Winner of the Newbery Medal―a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.

“Gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes ― truly a beautiful cuento.”―New York Times

Había una vez . . . 

There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. 

But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children ― among them Petra and her family ― have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. 

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet ― and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard ― or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?