Race through space, p.1
Race Through Space, page 1
How to Test a Friendship
Brain Trouble
Riding Sound Waves
The Great Germ Hunt
Race Through Space
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2022 by Theanne Griffith
Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2022 by Reginald Brown
The Magnificent Makers: Storm Chasers excerpt text copyright © 2022 by Theanne Griffith. Cover art and excerpt illustrations copyright © 2022 by Reginald Brown.
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Griffith, Theanne, author. | Brown, Reggie, illustrator.
Title: Race through space / by Theanne Griffith; illustrated by Reggie Brown.
Description: First edition. | New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2022. | Series: The magnificent makers; 5 | Summary: Pablo loves everything outer space, but as he, Violet, and Deepak go through the levels of the Maker Maze to learn about space, he keeps making mistakes, and his friends keep correcting him, so he begins to wonder whether he will ever know enough to become an astronaut.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004763 (print) | LCCN 2021004764 (ebook) |
ISBN 978-0-593-37963-9 (paperback) | ISBN 978-0-593-37964-6 (library binding) | ISBN 978-0-593-37965-3 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Makerspaces—Juvenile fiction. | Space sciences—Juvenile fiction. | Friendship—Juvenile fiction. | Outer space—Juvenile fiction. | Solar system—Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Makerspaces—Fiction. | Space sciences—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Outer space—Fiction. | Solar system—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.G7527 Rac 2022 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.G7527 (ebook) | DDC 813.6 [Fic]—dc23
Ebook ISBN 9780593379653
This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.
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Contents
Cover
Other Titles
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Make Your Own Creations!
Excerpt from The Magnificent Makers: Storm Chasers
Acknowledgments
For Lila corazón, my future astronaut
—T.G.
To Kaia, Bella, and Indigo,
I wish for you all the happiness
this world has to offer
—R.B.
Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp!
Pablo sucked an imaginary string of pasta through his lips.
“No way!” said Violet with squinted eyes. She tucked a few stray kinks of hair behind her ears and crossed her arms. “That’s impossible.”
“I promise! That’s what happens if you get too close to a black hole,” replied Pablo. “I read all about it. You get stretched like a looooooooooong piece of spaghetti.”
“Well…I’m glad there aren’t any black holes close to Earth,” said Violet. “I can’t become a scientist if I get turned into a noodle first.”
The two best friends giggled. They sat cross-legged in the center of the Newburg Meadow with tall grass and scattered flowers fluttering in the wind around them. The field was dotted with Newburg Elementary students and their families. This month’s field trip was outdoors, and everyone was waiting for the sun to go down. Tonight, they were going to watch one of the largest meteor showers ever recorded in Newburg history!
“Did you know a meteor shower happens when lots of tiny bits of space rock come close to Earth and burn up?” asked Pablo in one long breath. “Sometimes people call them shooting stars. But they’re not even stars!” Pablo could hardly contain his excitement.
“Yes, you told me yesterday. And the day before that.” Violet laughed.
Pablo and Violet had been best friends since Pablo moved from Puerto Rico to Newburg in first grade. They’d play soccer together in the park after school or share a delicious pickle on their walk home. But this week, Pablo had spent all his free time in the library reading about meteors and other space objects. Both Pablo and Violet loved learning about science. But space was Pablo’s favorite. And he wanted to make sure he remembered everything for tonight’s field trip.
Pablo’s mom called from across the meadow. “It’s almost time!” She held her watch in the air and tapped it. “Only fifteen more minutes until sunset.”
Violet’s dad was standing next to Pablo’s mom. He gave Pablo and Violet two thumbs-up.
Pablo tilted his head back and looked at the deep-purple-and-pink sky. One day he was going to watch a meteor shower from the window of his very own spaceship. That had been his dream ever since he could remember, even though some of his cousins would tease him about it. They said he was too forgetful to become an astronaut. But today he was prepared.
“Hi!” said a voice suddenly.
Pablo and Violet looked over their shoulders. It was their friend Deepak!
“Hey!” said Pablo. He eyed a pair of binoculars hanging around Deepak’s neck. “Where did you get those?”
“They belong to my mom. She let me borrow them for the meteor shower. They’re kind of heavy, though.” Deepak removed the binoculars and set them in the grass. Then he plopped down next to Pablo. “This is going to be so awesome!” Deepak rubbed the palms of his hands together.
“It won’t actually rain meteors tonight, right?” Violet asked. She bit her lip and looked up at the darkening sky.
“Nah!” replied Deepak. “Most meteors are too small. They just burn up.”
“That’s true. But did you know thousands of meteors still hit Earth every year?” added Pablo. “I wouldn’t be surprised if tonight— Oh no! Look out!”
Violet yelped and covered her face with her hands. Nothing happened. She peeked through the cracks in her fingers and saw Pablo and Deepak smiling.
“Not funny, Pablo!” she said. Then she smiled, too.
“Glad to see you all having fun,” said Mr. Eng. The trio looked up. Their teacher stood above them with a smile on his face and a pencil behind his ear. He was holding a stack of black papers.
“I wish the sun would hurry up and set,” said Pablo.
Mr. Eng laughed. “Don’t worry. Just a few more moments and we should be able to see the meteor shower.”
“What are those, Mr. Eng?” Violet pointed to the papers he was holding.
“These are worksheets about the different objects that exist in our solar system,” he replied.
“Like planets!” said Deepak.
“And comets!” added Pablo.
“Exactly,” replied Mr. Eng.
“But we won’t be able to read those in the dark!” said Violet.
Mr. Eng smiled again and took the stack of papers from under his arm. Green letters glimmered on each sheet.
“Whoa!” said Pablo, Violet, and Deepak.
“I wish all my homework glowed in the dark!” said Pablo, holding the paper up close to his face.
“I’m going to hand the rest of them out to the other students and families.” Mr. Eng turned and walked toward a group of parents.
Pablo, Violet, and Deepak read aloud together:
Violet bit her lip. “Dust and ice…” She re-read the sentence. “That sounds like a dirty snowball.”
Pablo and Deepak laughed.
“I didn’t know meteors came from asteroids,” said Pablo.
“Really?” asked Deepak. He tugged his ear. “I knew that.”
Pablo scratched his cheek. “Well, I mean…,” he began. His face turned a little pink. He had been reading about meteors all week. How did I forget that? he wondered.
Out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew through the meadow. The trio gripped their worksheets. As the wind settled, they could see a stray black sheet of paper flipping through the air. It landed in the grass.
“I better go get that,” said Pablo, standing up. He hurried over toward t he piece of paper. But it wasn’t a worksheet.
Pablo held the black paper with glowing green words. “It’s a riddle!”
Violet and Deepak ran over.
“Does this mean we get to go back to the Maker Maze?” Deepak said, staring at the shimmering sheet.
“Oh yeah,” said Violet with a wide smile. The light from the riddle made her kinky hair glow like a crown in the dark.
The Maker Maze was a magical laboratory that Pablo, Violet, and Deepak discovered earlier in the school year. It had everything from robots and lasers to microscopes and zero gravity chambers. And to get there, they needed to solve a riddle like this one. The trio wiggled with excitement as they read carefully:
“The first one has to be comet,” said Violet.
“And the next one is definitely planet. It’s probably Mars!” added Deepak.
“Which means the last one is meteoroid!” shouted Pablo.
Pablo, Deepak, and Violet waited. Nothing happened.
“Maybe it’s asteroid? Since it’s massive?” Violet suggested.
Without warning, the ground began to shake. The grass and flowers vibrated. It felt like the earth was dancing below their feet. Pablo, Violet, and Deepak held on to one another to keep from falling.
The ground became still. The grass and flowers didn’t budge. The three friends slowly wandered around the silent meadow. Each time they opened the portal to the Maker Maze, everyone and everything else froze in place!
“Whoa…,” Violet said. “Look at that!” She pointed up. A bat was upside down and frozen midflight! Its mouth was open.
“Must have been chasing after a bug!” said Pablo.
“Oh no!” Deepak shouted.
“What’s wrong?” asked Violet.
“My mom’s binoculars! I lost them!” Deepak replied.
“Didn’t you set them down—” Violet began.
“Over there!” Pablo exclaimed.
They ran over to the pair of binoculars. They were glowing in a circle of purple light. Deepak knelt to pick them up. He felt a tickle on his fingertips as they passed through the light.
BIZZAP!
He giggled as he pulled his hand back.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine here,” said Violet. She looked around at all the frozen faces. Then she reached one hand down to Deepak and the other to Pablo. “Ready?”
The trio leaned in close to the beaming binoculars.
“Here we go!” Pablo called into the evening sky. One by one, they were squeezed through the portal.
BIZZAP!
They landed feetfirst on the floor of the Maker Maze. The room was huge and filled with all kinds of fun science equipment. The Makers wandered along the lab tables that held odd plants and flasks of mysterious, bubbling liquids.
“It’s even cooler than I remember,” said Deepak.
“I think it gets cooler each time we come back,” said Violet.
The trio passed by large jars with buzzing bugs and a line of zero gravity chambers that held floating crystals. Next to the never-ending hallway were two robots sitting at a giant microscope. They were taking turns looking through the lens. Across the room, a screen showed that everyone was still frozen in the Newburg Meadow.
“Well, howdy, Makers!” a voice boomed from behind. Pablo, Violet, and Deepak turned and smiled at the tall woman with wild rainbow hair.
“It’s magnificent to see you again!” Dr. Crisp continued, clapping her hands. “Hey, stranger! Glad you’re back,” she said to Deepak.
“Me too! I’ve missed this place,” he replied.
“Dr. Crisp! Dr. Crisp!” Pablo shouted as he jumped up and down. “We have to learn about space on this challenge. We were just about to watch a meteor shower before we got your riddle!”
Dr. Crisp smiled and pulled a large umbrella out of the front pocket of her lab coat. She opened it and said, “I’m always prepared for bad weather!”
The Makers laughed.
“It’s not that kind of shower, Dr. Crisp,” said Pablo.
“Yeah,” added Deepak. “It’s more like fireworks!”
Dr. Crisp winked. “Just teasing!” She set the umbrella on the floor. “Well, let’s get this show on the road!” She went to grab the Maker Manual off a lab table. But it wasn’t there.
“Uh-oh.” Dr. Crisp removed a pencil from behind her ear and rubbed her chin with the eraser. She snapped her head in one direction, then in the other. She darted up and down along each lab table. Suddenly, she dropped to her hands and knees and squinted at the floor. Finally, she stood up and shrugged.
“What are we going to do?” asked Pablo, scratching his cheek. He really didn’t want anything to go wrong today.
“Wait a minute!” said Dr. Crisp. She reached up and dug around in her hair with both hands. She pulled and tugged a bit before removing a glittering lab notebook.
“Well, flip my flask! Forgot that I stuck it up there while I was cleaning. Now, did someone say space?” asked Dr. Crisp. She held the golden book in the palms of her hands. It snapped open quickly to a picture of a large question mark.
“Yes!” Pablo, Violet, and Deepak cheered.
The pages of the book began turning quickly. A gust of wind blew through the Maze just like in the Newburg Meadow. The wind stopped as the pages slowed. They finally landed on one that read:
Pablo felt a warm feeling rise in his chest. He had never been so excited in his life. “This is going to be epic!”
“Magnificent Maker Watches ready?” shouted Dr. Crisp. She stood in front of the door with her hand on the knob.
“Yes!” replied the Makers, each holding an arm in the air. These special watches appeared on their wrists when they were about to start the challenge. They used them for all kinds of things in the Maker Maze, like shooting lasers, recording their answers, scanning holograms—and most importantly, keeping track of time.
“Good!” said Dr. Crisp. “We’ll be traveling pretty far!”
The Makers needed to finish the challenge in less than one hundred twenty Maker Minutes if they wanted to return to the Maze for more fun. Dr. Crisp slowly opened the door, and the Makers’ watches vibrated and glowed.
As Pablo, Violet, and Deepak walked through door number fourteen, their mouths dropped open. Rotating slowly in the middle of the wide room was a model solar system! In the center shone a bright yellow sun. Around it circled the eight different planets. And in between the orange glow of Mars and the stormy surface of Jupiter, tons of different-sized rocks floated like confetti.
Pablo pointed. “That must be the asteroid belt!” He definitely remembered reading about that. “It’s the place in our solar system where most of the asteroids are found.”
Violet reached out to run her fingertips through the edge of the model solar system.
BIZZAP!
“Okay, Makers. Listen up! For this level, we’re going to get up close and personal with different space objects. But first, we’ll need some special equipment!” Dr. Crisp pressed a button on the side of her watch and shouted, “Maker Maze, activate space suits!”
The room immediately went dark, and the floor began to vibrate. Suddenly, a blast of purple light shot out of the model sun and blinded the Makers.
After a few seconds, they were able to open their eyes again. The model solar system was gone. Pablo slowly lifted his arms to examine them. He patted his chest with his hands. Then he touched the helmet now covering his face.
“This is…,” Pablo began. But he couldn’t find the word to finish his sentence.
“AMAZING!” Violet yelled as she jumped in the air.
