For eleven-year-old Elara, life at the Academy of Terraforming Arts is a lot tougher -- and stranger -- than she expected. Her latest experiment accidentally blew up the moon. Her roommate, Clare, is a mute intergalactic sponge. And no one at her new school knows what it's like to grow up on a planet called "Nowhere." But if the greatest Planetary Designers in the galaxy made it through their first year, then so can she.