Hello, Universe

Virgil Salinas is an eleven-year-old boy who’s just finished sixth grade. He’s the only shy member of his boisterous Filipino family. Virgil describes his family this way: “Big personalities that bubbled over like pots of soup. Virgil felt like unbuttered toast standing next to them” (4). His parents and twin brothers, Joselito and Julius, all call him Turtle because he won’t come out of his shell.

Virgil’s only confidante is his grandmother, Lola, who secretly confesses that he’s her favorite. One day, she tells him about her recurring dream of the Stone Boy. A shy and lonely boy, much like Virgil, walks into the forest and begs a large stone to eat him. It does, and he’s never seen again.

A hearing-impaired eleven-year-old girl named Valencia is having trouble falling asleep. She isn’t afraid of the dark but has a recurring nightmare. She is standing on a hillside with a crowd of people watching a solar eclipse. After it ends, all the other people have vanished except her. Once she awakens, Valencia says, “I make a promise to myself: if I have another nightmare tonight, I’ll talk to someone and ask for help. I don’t know who. But someone” (14).