Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader Read online

  EARTH-OBSERVING SATELLITES

  Our planet’s climate is changing, and one of the ways we know that is because of satellites that orbit our planet, sending images and measurements back to scientists here on Earth. For example, NASA has an “Earth Observing System” that includes more than fifteen satellites that study the atmosphere, ice sheets, oceans, and other parts of the environment. Using information from these satellites, scientists have figured out that the Earth is warming up, and the climate is changing quickly due to human activities like burning fossil fuels. As we figure out how to make cleaner technologies and how to stop the Earth from warming, swarms of satellites will keep a watchful eye on the Earth and how we’re changing it.

  SPEAKING TO AN ASTRONAUT

  Mr. Peebles helps Ada, Nina, and Milton contact an astronaut in space using a ham radio. The coolest part about this is that it is actually something that you can do in real life—I’ve done it! I spoke to an astronaut on the International Space Station on a ham radio with a bunch of other students through a program called ARISS. The type of ham radio that Ada uses, a 2-meter radio, emits the right type of radio wave that can zip though Earth’s atmosphere and go into space. (Not all electromagnetic waves can do that—some actually bounce back!)

  Remember in the beginning of the story, when Nina heard the radio transmit “Release the swarm” even though the ham radio wasn’t picking up any other signal at the time? This was because the trees in Juniper Garden were blocking Ada’s signal from leaving the neighborhood, but the trees weren’t blocking her ham radio from receiving signals from overhead—from space! The International Space Station must have been directly above them at the time—and they were just lucky enough to hear its transmission.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As a kid who grew up in West Virginia, I found myself on a lot of back roads late at night with my family. We’d be thirty minutes outside the city, away from all the light pollution, driving back home from a family member’s house. I’d lean my head against the window and look up at the night sky, following the stars all the way home. This is when I would daydream about aliens.

  Fantasizing about life on different planets sparked my imagination like nothing else. It made the universe feel exciting, wild, and new—just waiting to be explored. That spark led to a career in the space industry that I will forever be grateful for, so I’m thankful to the beautiful state of West Virginia for giving me a dark night sky to see the universe. Every kid should have a safe, dark place to daydream about the universe.

  As always, thank you to my incredible Ada Lace team for keeping the adventures going: Liz Kossnar at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Kyell Thomas and Jennifer Keene at Octagon, Tamson Weston, and Renée Kurilla—you’re all so talented, and Ada and I are lucky to have you.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo by Jennifer Shephard, West Virginia University

  EMILY CALANDRELLI is a producer and the host of Xploration Outer Space, a correspondent on Bill Nye Saves the World, and the author of Ada Lace, on the Case and Ada Lace Sees Red. She has mechanical and aerospace engineering degrees from West Virginia University and master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics as well as technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A professional speaker and writer, Emily is deeply passionate about getting more girls excited about STEM and STEM careers. She lives in San Francisco. Learn more at TheSpaceGal.com.

  RENÉE KURILLA has illustrated many books for kids, including Orangutanka: A Story in Poems by Margarita Engle and The Owls of Blossom Wood by Catherine Coe. She lives just south of Boston with her husband; their fluffy orange cat, Timmy; and their spiky hedgehog, Lemon. Visit her at kurillastration.com.

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  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Emily-Calandrelli

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Tamson-Weston

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  ALSO BY EMILY CALANDRELLI

  Ada Lace, on the Case

  Ada Lace Sees Red

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Emily Calandrelli

  Cover and interior illustrations copyright © 2018 by Renée Kurilla

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Also available in a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers hardcover edition

  Book design by Laurent Linn

  The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.

  Cover design by Laurent Linn

  Cover illustrations copyright © 2018 by Renée Kurilla

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Calandrelli, Emily, author. | Weston, Tamson, author. | Illustrator. Kurilla, Renée,

  Title: Ada Lace, take me to your leader / Emily Calandrelli ; with Tamson Weston ; illustrated by Renée Kurilla.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2018] | Series: An Ada Lace adventure ; [3] | Summary: When eight-year-old Ada uses her love of science and technology to tinker with a ham radio, Nina hears sounds that she thinks are space aliens.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017018866| ISBN 9781481486057 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781481486040 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781481486064 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | Amateur radio stations—Fiction. | Astronauts—Fiction. | Science—Methodology—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C28 Ah 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018866