ADA Lace, Take Me to Your Leader

Autorentext

Emily Calandrelli is an MIT engineer turned Emmy-nominated science TV host. She’s the host and coexecutive producer of Emily’s Wonder Lab on Netflix, featured as a correspondent on Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, and an executive producer and host of Fox’s Xploration Outer Space. Emily is the author of the picture book Reach for the Stars, the science experiment book Stay Curious and Keep Exploring, and the science chapter book series the Ada Lace Adventures. The third book in the series was launched to the International Space Station through the Story Time from Space program. Learn more at TheSpaceGal.com.

Tamson Weston is the author of Hey, Pancakes!, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, and has over fifteen years experience in children’s book publishing. She works as a freelance editor and has edited books by acclaimed authors such as Adam Rex, Mac Barnett, and Dan Santat, among others. She has an MFA in writing and literature and enjoys running, biking, swimming, and lifting heavy things. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at TamsonWeston.com.

Renée Kurilla is an illustrator of many books for kids, including Orangutanka: A Story in Poems by Margarita Engle, The Owls of Blossom Wood series by Catherine Coe, and the Ada Lace Adventure series by Emily Calandrelli. She has written a few books as well, including the picture book One Springy, Singy Day and the graphic novel The Flower Garden. She currently lives in Bellingham, Massachusetts, with her illustrator husband Keith Zoo, their six-year-old daughter Zoey, and Yoshi the fish. Visit her at Kurillastration.com.

Klappentext

From Emily Calandrelli—host of Xploration Outer Space, correspondent on Bill Nye Saves the World, and graduate of MIT—comes the third novel in a fun illustrated chapter book series about an eight-year-old girl with a knack for science, math, and solving mysteries with technology.

Third grader and inventor extraordinaire Ada Lace likes nothing more than to tinker with mechanics like her robot, George. Her latest project is to fix up a ham radio, something that she could use to contact people on this planet…and beyond. The only problem is that she just can’t get it to work properly.

During a sleepover, Ada’s best friend Nina hears something strange coming from the radio in the middle of the night. A distant voice says, “Release the swarm!” convincing Nina that aliens are about to invade planet Earth.

Could Ada and Nina have stumbled upon something…extraterrestrial?

Leseprobe
Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader

Chapter One

RADIO SILENCE

Ada pressed the button on the mic and opened her mouth to speak. That was the exact moment when Ms. Lace burned the toast. The smoke alarm on the stairs went off, and George the robot rolled around the room crying, “Fire! Fire!”

“NO!” Ada yelled. “George, there is no fire!”

Then the sprinkler in the center of Ada’s bedroom ceiling rained down on her bed, her rug, and her desk. Ada threw her raincoat over the radio, but she wasn’t sure she was quick enough.

“George, the fire’s out!” called Ada.

“Emergency averted,” answered George. The fire alarm stopped beeping, the sprinkler stopped sprinkling. Elliott ran into Ada’s room with his new Batman umbrella.

“Aw, I missed it again.”

“Ada,” said Mr. Lace from the doorway, “you may need to fine-tune George.”

“Mom may need to fine-tune the toaster.”

“Ada . . . ,” said Mr. Lace.

“I know, Dad. I’ll fix him.” Ada had engineered her robot, George, to keep her room safe, but she had already had to replace her rug after their neighbor Jacob grilled his steak in the courtyard and the smoke poured into Ada’s room. Clearly, George was doing his job a little too well.

“Safety first,” said George. It was as if he’d read her thoughts.

“That’s creepy, George,” said Ada.

The night-light on George’s head lit up. “This will comfort you,” he said. Soothing music drifted out of his speakers.

“Thanks, George, I feel better now. You can go to sleep,” said Ada. He rolled into the corner and turned off.

Ada pulled the raincoat off her ham radio and dried it off. Then Nina showed up. Ada looked at the clock and realized she was supposed to meet her friend five minutes ago to walk to school.

• • •

“Hey, you were late, so I thought I would just run over here. Whoa! Is that a ham radio?”

“Yes! Mr. Peebles gave it to me the other day. I’m still trying to figure it out. How did you know?”

“I was just reading about them in my book World of Weird Book 3: Across the Void! Have you contacted a parallel universe yet?”

“I’m not sure I can even talk to Mr. Peebles now. George may have broken it.”

“George used it?”

“It’s a long story. I can tell you on the way to school.”

• • •

As they walked, Ada told Nina about George’s false alarm, and Nina told Ada about her book. In it a group of kids used a ham radio in their clubhouse. First, they talked to people all over the world, then, from . . . other worlds.

“That sounds cool,” said Ada. “I wish I could do that with my radio.”

“Maybe you can!” said Nina.

“At this point I’d be happy just to talk to someone in Oakland.”

• • •

After school, Ada invited Nina over to help her work on the radio. Nina had all kinds of advice.

“You know, in the book Nate and Fiona wore tinfoil hats.”

“Oh. Really? Why?”

“Gee, Ada, I thought you knew about this stuff. That way the evil energy from the other world couldn’t seep into their brains.”

“I think I’ll just start with trying to figure out how to talk to someone in the Bay Area first. Baby steps. Anyway, you need a different kind of radio to speak to other parts of the world. And, uh, probably other worlds, I guess.”

“Why is it called a ham radio anyway?” asked Nina.

Ada’s dad was passing Ada’s room. He couldn’t resist a chance to answer. “Well, rumor has it that Marconi was a little hungry when he invented radio. So, the first thing he did when he got it working was order a ham sandwich!”

“Dad!” called Ada.

“Is that true?” asked Nina.

“Of course not!” said Ada.

“Yeah, you’re right. Marconi was Italian. He probably would have ordered capicola or prosciutto.”

“Ugh!” said Ada.

Nina didn’t seem to know whether to be amused or confused.

“No one really knows why it’s called a ham,” said Ada. “Some people think it’s an acronym for the three radio innovators: Hertz, Armstrong, and Marconi, but there are other explanations too.”

Ada took the cover off the radio and revealed a bunch of brightly colored wires and little nodes fixed to a green circuit board.

“Gosh! It’s so pretty. The cover should be see-through!” said Nina.

“That’s a cool idea. Maybe I’ll work on that after I figure out the talking part.”

• • •

There was very lit…