Children of the Dog Star

12-year-old Gretchen Kierney is fascinated by the stars and hopes one day to explore them for herself. She comes closer than she ever expected to this dream when she stays at her uncle's farm one summer. There seems to be an alien presence there, but what is it, and what is the mysterious weather vane on top of the barn that seems to know Gretchen's every step? Meanwhile, the local Maori tribe is battling property developers over the nearby swampland - a sacred site their legends tell them must be forever off-limits to humans. Gretchen, along with her new friends, Ronny and Bevis, discover the two things may be related when mysterious power cuts begin to occur all over town and strange things start to come out of the swamp. Somehow, the answer is linked with the distant star Sirius B and the mythology of the Dogon people a continent away, but who is the mysterious Kolob, and what does he want with the children?