The Metamorph Files Book 2: The Spreading Glow. The Metamorph Files, #2

One year after the glowing barrel changed everything, Alexa Thompson has embraced her new life as an eleven-year-old girl with mysterious blue energy powers. Leading the Junkyard Detectives Club with her best friends, she thought the nightmare of Project Metamorph was over. She was wrong. When quiet classmate Sarah wakes up transforming into a boy named Sam - complete with a powerful purple glow of her own - the club realizes the dangerous resequencing agent is spreading.
More kids are changing overnight, gaining strange abilities, and the secretive men from the junkyard are racing to cover their tracks before the whole town is affected. As the club welcomes new members like Jordan (who develops shimmering green defensive powers), Alexa and her friends must sneak into the junkyard at night, combine their emerging abilities, sabotage leaking barrels, steal critical evidence, and stop a catastrophic river dump that could change dozens more lives forever.
Packed with heart-pounding missions, loyal friendships, family support, and the challenges of sudden gender transformations, The Spreading Glow is a thrilling middle-grade adventure about courage, acceptance, and fighting back against forces bigger than yourself. Perfect for fans of mystery, sci-fi, and stories of empowerment and found family.