Ada Lace and the Impossible Mission
Page 4
ESCAPE ROOMS
Ada and her friends designed the game Heist Room. These types of games exist in the real world and are typically called escape rooms. Escape rooms are a fun activity to do with family and friends. I’ve done a handful of them with my friends, and we love them! They’re challenging, and you have to work as a team in order to escape the room. Most escape rooms have a theme—for example, “Escape jail!” or “Escape the haunted mansion!” or “Escape from the gym!” In order to “win,” your group has to use clues scattered throughout the room to solve different puzzles. Usually one puzzle will lead to another, and another, and another. For one escape room, our group had to solve three different puzzles in order to get three different numbers that could be used on a combination lock. Once we had all the numbers, we could open the lock and escape the room! I have a feeling Ada, Nina, and Milton will try to find (or create!) more escape rooms in the future, don’t you?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every kid should live life with a healthy dose of curiosity.
I’m thankful to my parents, who created an environment where curiosity was welcomed and encouraged. You made it okay to explore unknown territory, simply because it seemed interesting. You were encouraging when I wanted to pursue a career that you knew nothing about. You were supportive when I wanted to travel overseas by myself and live abroad in a foreign country. You’ve stood behind me as I’ve gone on countless adventures chasing the question “Wonder what that would be like?” You believed in my ability to pursue my curiosity, and for that I am grateful.
To my husband, Tommy, who is always down for random, spontaneous adventures. Thank you for giving me the confidence to pursue such curiosities as “Wonder what it’s like to create a children’s book series?”
To Kyell Thomas and Jennifer Keene at Octagon, thank you for challenging and widening my own curiosity when it comes to my career. You’ve helped me dream bigger and bolder.
And as always, thank you to Tamson Weston for clearly articulating Ada’s curiosity about the world around her, to Renée Kurilla for beautifully bringing Ada’s curiosities to life, and to Liz Kossnar for publishing Ada’s curiosity to the world.
Turn the page for a peek at another Ada Lace adventure in
Ada Lace and the Suspicious Artist.
Okay. A tick to the right,” said Nina.
“I moved it to the right before, and you said to move it back,” said Ada.
“Okay! Sorry! Wait a minute. Now I don’t know if that background looks good with these pieces. Maybe we should start over.”
“Nina!”
Ada was helping Nina build an online portfolio. It was the best way to introduce her creative energy to the universe, Nina had said. They had been at it all day, and patience was wearing thin. Ada had some of the coding skills, and Nina had a vision in her mind’s eye, but making those two things meet in the middle was harder than they thought. All the numbers, letters, tags, and brackets were starting to blur together. They had already spent an hour trying to add a feature that would allow art lovers to position an image of the piece they were thinking of buying within a picture of their space so they could see what it would look like in context. Ada had learned a few different coding languages from working on George, but Web design was a different ball game. She couldn’t quite manage what Nina wanted. And since Ada couldn’t perfect the art placement feature, Nina seemed unhappy with everything.
“I’m sorry,” said Nina. “It’s just that I want Nina Nina Land to look professional . . . impressive. I want Guy Miroir to know I’m for real.”
That was the other problem. Ada was sick of this Miroir character. Her mom had been preparing for his show all week, and Ada had never seen her so stressed out. Between Ms. Lace and Nina, it seemed like Miroir was the only important person in the world. She looked forward to having her friend and her mom back.
“I’m not a professional,” said Ada. “If I were, I would be charging you!”
In the middle of it all Elliott burst into Ada’s room with socks on his hands and started rubbing the corner of her desk, her bookshelf, and the head of her bed.
“What are you doing, Elliott?” asked Ada.
“I’m helping clean!” said Elliott.
Mr. Lace popped his head in. “Elliott. You’re supposed to be cleaning your room.”
“Oh, I am,” said Elliott. “I’m just making it fun!”
“It’s not supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be done!” said Mr. Lace.
Elliott stomped out of Ada’s room.
“I don’t know how much more I can do,” said Ada. “At least right now. This is beyond my skill level.”
“Fine,” said Nina. “I’m going to go home for a bit and see if I can come up with something a little simpler, I guess.”
“You know, Mr. Peebles’s nephew, Tycho, is here,” said Mr. Lace. “Isn’t he a really good Web programmer?”
“Yes, he is!” said Ada. “Thanks, Dad.”
• • •
Ms. Lace was at the gallery late again, so it was just Ada, Elliott, and Mr. Lace for dinner. Elliott insisted on cooking. It was his latest kick. Ada did not have high hopes. If she and Nina hadn’t spent so much time together already, she would have gone to Nina’s for dinner.
The table was set as only Elliott could set it—with a dinosaur in front of each plate. Ada sat in her usual seat.
“No, ADA! That’s not your spot!” said Elliott. He was wearing a big poufy chef’s hat and a gray apron that reached his toes.
“What do you mean? This is always my spot,” said Ada.
“No, you’re the Stegosaurus, obviously. Dad’s the Brachiosaurus.”
That did make sense somehow.
“But Dad’s seat is always at the end,” said Ada.
“Did you make dinner?” Elliott asked.
Ada sat behind the Stegosaurus. Elliott retreated into the kitchen. He came back out grasping a saucepan in two oversized, dirty yellow oven mitts. Just as he was about to reach Ada’s seat, he tripped over one of the apron’s ties and tossed franks and beans over the whole table. Ada escaped almost unscathed, but for a few beans on her sweater. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.
“OH NO!” yelled Elliott. “My masterpiece!”
Mr. Lace poked his head in and sighed.
“Mom just texted that she was on her way home,” he said. “I’ll tell her to bring a pizza from Donello’s.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” said Elliott.
“We’ll try breakfast this weekend, Ell. And maybe we’ll get you a better fitting apron.”
• • •
An hour later they were seated around the pizza. Ms. Lace looked frazzled.
“I’m so glad to be here with you guys,” said Ms. Lace.
“Bad day?” asked Ada.
“Well, it was challenging. Guy Miroir . . . needs a lot of things. He didn’t like any of the hotels in the city, so we had to put him up in Napa Valley. He’s very . . . particular. You know how these artists can be.”
“Tell me about it,” said Ada, thinking of Nina.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR
EMILY CALANDRELLI is a producer and the host of Xploration Outer Space, a correspondent on Bill Nye Saves the World, and the author of the Ada Lace Adventure series. 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 series 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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Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
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ALSO BY EMILY CALANDRELLI
Ada Lace, on the Case
Ada Lace Sees Red
Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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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
Jacket and interior illustrations copyright © 2018 by Renée Kurilla
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Also available in a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers paperback edition
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Calandrelli, Emily, author. | Weston, Tamson, author. | Illustrator. Kurilla, Renée,
Title: Ada Lace and the impossible mission / Emily Calandrelli with Tamson Weston ; illustrated by Renée Kurilla.
Description: First Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers paperback edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. | Series: An Ada Lace adventure ; [4] | Summary: Eight-year-old Ada uses new skills she learned from Milton to see if he sabotaged the social studies project Nina and the two of them worked on together.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017043006| ISBN 9781534416857 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534416840 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781534416864 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | Schools—Fiction. | Behavior—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C28 Aci 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043006