In the Spotlight, page 8
“Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!” Melody began to chant, and the crowd did, too, and so did all the girls backstage and even the judges.
Ellie grabbed the ends of the light wires and wrapped them around the two sides of the crown’s headband. She then jumped up and ran to the switch she’d put in just that morning; she flipped it on.
The audience gasped then applauded.
Ellie looked at Melody, who grinned back at her.
The circuit was complete—and the lights were on.
The announcer’s voice boomed out. “Next up, Miss Katherine Yoshimoto, performing a skateboarding routine—on a pretty amazing ramp, no less!”
Kit skateboarded like a skateboarding pro, if you asked Ellie. She whooshed up and down the ramp, dodging Melody’s crown and jumping into the air at the edges, so you could see the purple otters she’d drawn on the bottom side of the board. She was a ball of pink clothes and black hair, and every time she landed back on the board, the audience exploded with cheers. It was basically the best thing Ellie had ever seen, or at least the best skateboarding she’d ever seen, and she’d watched a lot of skateboarding videos with Kit.
That afternoon was the very last part of the pageant, when everyone wore their fancy dresses and walked onstage and waved like they were a queen or boss or president. Ellie walked in her high-heeled shoes with her balancers, and Melody and Kit and most everyone else walked in their high-heeled shoes without balancers. Ellie was pretty sure her dress weighed about a billion pounds, what with all the sparkles and sequins and beads and ruffles on it, but she was also pretty sure it was the best thing she’d worn in her whole entire life. (Which was really saying something, since she’d worn a ninja duck costume last Halloween.)
They stood in their very certain lines at the back of the stage, and after a whole bunch of announcements about more pageants and companies that had paid money to be talked about and someone in a green car whose lights were on, it was time for the awards. All the air around Ellie felt the way she figured one light in a circuit felt—with lots of buzzing electricity on both sides and you in the middle. Thinking about that made Ellie wonder about what it felt like for a light when you turned it off and all that electricity went away. Was it like taking a nap? Maybe—
“And the winner of the Miss Congeniality award, voted on by her fellow contestants, is . . . ,” the pageant person said. Everyone kept smiling. Ellie’s cheeks were starting to hurt—even for someone who smiled a lot, like she did, this was a lot of smiling—
“Contestant number thirty-two, Miss Ellie Bell!”
Ellie thought for a moment. That sounded just like her name! Maybe the acoustics in this room weren’t very good. She’d read all about acoustics and how sound bounced off some things better than it bounced off other things.
“Ellie!” Kit said.
Ellie turned and looked at Kit, confused—they weren’t supposed to talk onstage, and Kit hardly ever broke rules that were written down like that.
“Go!” Kit whisper-shouted, waving her arms.
And then Melody was doing the same thing! And then Emily, and Sarah, and—
“Oh!” Ellie realized.
She stepped forward, wobbling a little despite her heel balancers, and walked to the front of the stage. An older girl with bright-red hair put a sash around Ellie’s shoulders, one that said Miss Congeniality in big black letters. Voted on by her fellow contestants! They’d decided she was the most congenial! Ellie turned back around and looked at the girls onstage, who were clapping and smiling and all looking very beautiful and fancy and pageant-y.
“Really?” Ellie asked as she walked back to her spot in line.
Sarah, who was standing next to her, laughed, then she whispered, “Of course! You helped a bunch of us with our talents. And you found Pancakes! And you saved Kit’s lights! I’d have voted for you even if Melody hadn’t told us all to!”
“Melody said to vote for me?” Ellie asked. Her eyebrows tried to go up when she said this, but Kit’s mom had used some sort of weird paste or glue or grease on Ellie’s brows, so they couldn’t move much at all.
Sarah frowned, considering. “I really think told is the better word. Melody can be a little demanding, you know.”
Melody didn’t look demanding right now, though—she looked happy. She was still clapping for Ellie, maybe louder than everyone else combined. Even louder than Kit, who was just about glowing with excitement! Ellie and Kit distance-high-fived behind everyone’s backs, which was where you did your hand like a high five but were too far away to actually touch, and then everyone went quiet again. It was time for the big award—for Miss Junior Peachy Keen to be announced.
The pageant person called out the second runner-up—Sarah, who got a small crown. And then the first runner-up—Kit!—who got a medium crown. When it came time to crown the new Miss Junior Peachy Keen, no one was very surprised to discover it was Melody. The pageant people had to help her put on a new ginormous crown, because it was so big that Melody wouldn’t have been able to even hold it on her own. She waved at the audience, and loud music played, and then, just like that, parents in the audience were standing up to clap—then reaching around to grab all their empty chip bags and purses and phone chargers.
It was over!
Everyone on the stage rushed toward Melody to give her a hug and tell her congratulations. Kit was the first one to reach her—she was very fast in high heels, Ellie realized.
“I’m so happy for you!” Kit told Melody. “After you had such a lousy weekend looking for Pancakes!”
Melody was beaming, but her smile went a little different for a second. “Which—I knew you didn’t take Pancakes, Kit. I’m sorry I said you did.”
Kit shrugged. “That’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t. It wasn’t very Miss Junior Peachy Keen of me. I think it dishonored the crown,” Melody said, shaking her head.
Emily gasped. Sarah put a hand to her mouth.
“No!” Piper said.
“What?” Ellie asked.
“You can’t bring dishonor to the crown! Or you have to give it up!” Sarah whispered fearfully.
Melody hugged Kit again, and then bit her lip (without messing up her lipstick, which was impressive), like she was working up the courage to do something. Everyone crowded around her had gone still . . . until Melody reached up and carefully pulled the crown off her head. She stepped toward Kit, lifted the crown to Kit’s fluffed-up hair, and—
“Congratulations, Melody,” Kit said, reaching forward and grabbing Melody’s hand. “I’m so glad you won!”
Everyone’s eyes went big, but no one’s went bigger than Melody’s. Ellie watched as Melody put the crown back on her own head. Melody and Kit looked at each other for a few seconds, like they were having some sort of secret-eye-contact pageant conversation, and then Melody turned to Ellie.
“And Ellie? Your engineering ballet dance was amazing. Engineering is such a great talent. And I was just being mean when I made fun of engineering and said your tool belt looked grimy and all that other stuff. I’m really sorry.”
“It does look a little grimy,” Ellie admitted, though she was pink with happiness from the apology.
“No, no, it looks vintage,” Melody corrected. “Vintage things are supposed to be grimy. It makes you very stylish.”
“Oh! I didn’t know that,” Ellie said.
“I hope you come to another pageant—and if you do, I think it’d be really cool to help you engineer something, like Kit and that boy who kept offering me breath mints do. Would that be okay?” Melody asked, looking a little unsure. Ellie realized what she was really asking—if Ellie forgave her.
“That would be great,” Ellie said, and Melody grinned before waving then walking off to rejoin her parents. Ellie and Kit linked arms and went to the edge of the stage, where their moms and Toby were waiting.
“Good game,” Toby said, reaching out to shake Ellie’s hand. “Finding Pancakes was extremely congenial, so I think that really got you ahead of me right there at the end.”
“You were an excellent contestant, though,” Ellie told him. “And I couldn’t have found Pancakes without your help building the rabbit catcher.”
Toby looked pleased, then he put a hand to his chin. “It’s a shame we have to take it apart—but I promised the people at the desk that we’d give their table back.”
“Nah, it’s okay,” Ellie said. “Besides—I know just what we’ll build when we get home.”
ELLIE BELL’S GUIDE TO ELECTRICITY*
*Electricity can be dangerous—I mean, most everything can be dangerous if you aren’t careful. Electricity is extra dangerous sometimes, though, so be careful when you’re learning about it.
ATOMS
To know about electricity, it helps a lot to know about atoms. Everything is made of atoms—you, your friends, your desk, your shoes, the trees, the moon, hot dogs, robots, swimming pools, everything. They’re teeny-tiny, so it takes millions and billions of atoms to make stuff. Each atom has three parts: protons, neutrons, and electrons. They sort of look like this:
In an atom, the electrons are the things that create electricity (which is easy to remember, since they both start with “elec”). An atom is happiest when it has the same number of protons and electrons—it just sits nicely, and nothing much happens. But when you move some of the electrons to a different atom? That’s electricity!
TYPES OF ELECTRICITY
There are two types of electricity: static electricity and current electricity.
Static electricity is electricity that groups up all in one spot. Current electricity needs to flow along a path, like the way you run around the edge of the gym at school.
Here’s an easy-peasy static electricity experiment:
1. Blow up a balloon.
2. Rub the balloon on your shirt for a few minutes. This knocks some of the electrons off the balloon and puts them in your body.
3. Hold the balloon to your hair. Your hair will stand up and stick to the balloon! This is because now the atoms in the balloon need electrons to be happy again, so your hair stands up to touch the balloon and give it electrons.
Static electricity is fun, but current electricity is my favorite. Current electricity is how we power pretty much everything—cars, phones, lights, televisions, drills ... everything. Current electricity needs to flow around a circle path called a circuit! Circle, circuit? See?
A circuit is a path for electrons to flow around and around, which is what gives us electrical power. The electrons leave the battery, go out and around the circuit and into the light, then back to the battery.
CONDUCTORS AND INSULATORS
Some materials make really good circuits, because they’re great paths for electrons to travel on—like copper wire. These are called conductors.
Some materials make lousy circuits, because they’re terrible paths for electrons to travel on—like rubber. These are called insulators. That’s why when you see wire, sometimes it’s wrapped in rubber—to keep the electrons on the circuit path!
If there’s a break in the path, the electrons can’t flow, so the electricity stops. A break in the path can happen by accident—like when the wire gets stepped on or sliced—or on purpose, like when you flip a light switch. A light switch works by breaking the circuit on purpose, which stops the flow of electrons!
AN EXPERIMENT WITH ELECTRICITY
Really, you’re experimenting with electricity every single time you turn on a light—but there’s an especially great way to play with current electricity that’s really easy and fun. Here’s what you do:
DOUGH CIRCUITS
You need:
• A battery holder with four AA batteries and a switch (you can buy one, but sometimes you can find one in an old toy to use!)
• LED lights (you need the little individual lights)
• 1 cup of flour (plus a little extra in a separate dish)
• 1 cup of water
• ¼ cup of salt
• 9 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• Food coloring (I like purple, but you should pick your favorite color)
Mix the flour, water, salt, lemon juice, and vegetable oil in a saucepan. Put it on the stove over medium heat (you need an adult to help with this part) and stir, stir, stir until it all gets thick and makes a big ball of dough. Then take it out of the pot and let it cool on the counter for a few minutes. Once it’s cool, mash it up with a little extra flour until it isn’t sticky anymore.
Now, roll out two little pieces of dough and put them beside each other but not touching. Poke one wire from your battery into one piece and the other wire into the other piece. Then stick the LED light in the middle of the two pieces of dough.
Turn on the switch! The electrons should be able to flow through the wire, into the dough, through the light, and then back to the batteries, making a perfect circuit—and the light should turn on!
SHORT CIRCUITS
You can make the dough in a whole bunch of shapes. It won’t work, though, if there isn’t space between the two pieces of dough—if that happens, the electrical current will skip the light and go right to the other piece of dough then back into the battery. This is called a short circuit because the electrons take a shortcut. Get it?
HOW TO MAKE INSULATING DOUGH
If you want to make something especially cool and need the two pieces of dough to touch, you can make a second kind of dough called insulating dough. (Remember: insulators are lousy paths for electricity! Electrons can’t travel through this dough, so it can touch the other dough without causing a short circuit.)
INSULATING DO UGH
You need:
• 1 cup of flour
• ½ cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• ½ cup of water
• Food coloring (choose a different color this time—I like pink or yellow for this one)
Stir it together until it becomes a big ball, then put it on the counter and mash it with some extra flour until it isn’t sticky. That’s it!
Take a little piece of this dough and put it between the other two pieces. The electrons can’t get through this dough, so the circuit still works!
Here are some things I’ve made with squishy circuits!
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First published in the United States of America in November 2019 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Text copyright © 2019 by Jackson Pearce
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Tuesday Mourning
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pearce, Jackson, author.
Title: Ellie, engineer : in the spotlight / by Jackson Pearce.
Other titles: In the spotlight Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2019.
Summary: When Kit’s pageant rival Melody loses her rabbit, Ellie believes she can build a contraption to catch him, but she begins to doubt herself when Melody insists that a pageant is no place for messy engineering experiments.
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0185-1 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0481-4 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0186-8 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0184-4 (XML)
Subjects: | CYAC: Engineering—Fiction. | Building—Fiction. | Pageants—Fiction. | Sex role—Fiction. | Self-perception—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.P31482 Elp 2019 (e-book) | LCC PZ7.P31482 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019022391
Book design by Jeanette Levy
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Jackson Pearce, In the Spotlight
