Judy Wallach-Stevens is woken one night to a warning about pollutants in the nearby Chesapeake Bay. With her wife and newborn in tow, she heads out to see what’s up—and ends up making first contact with a group of friendly aliens. The story that follows delightfully explores both human and interspecies gender dynamics—there’s a hilarious and touching moment early on when the aliens, some spider-like, others kin to pangolins, are invited to choose pronoun pins—and sharply points at the ways corporations are already commodifying those personal notes to their own ends. But I was struck mostly by the strong thread of community-making inherent in the book. With her co-parents and new alien friends, Judy works towards a model of kinship that is more expansive, more durable, and more galaxy-ranging than the traditional patriarchal family. And more messy and complicated too—but that’s the price, and joy, of living.