Space for Saffron - Couverture souple

Neal, Rie

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1665972521 ISBN 13 : 9781665972529

Editeur : Aladdin, 2026

Synopsis

A budding scientist must figure out how to help save her family’s cafe and impress at her new school’s science fair in this charming young middle grade read, perfect for fans of the Meena Zee and Front Desk series.

Curious ten-year-old Saffron Speiser-Green loves science—unfortunately, her “experiments” tend to end in more messes than actual answers. (Just ask the broken alarm clock that’s still at the bottom of her backpack.) Saffron has a plan, though—a blue ribbon in her school’s Project Showcase will show the world she means business.

But when Saffron’s beloved volcano project ruins the walls at Mama’s job and gets her fired, Saffron will do anything to make things right—including helping Mama convince her other mom, Mimi, that they should move to the Silicon Valley to run Gran’s coffee shop. Mama’s dream job is worth giving up the blue ribbon. Right?

Luckily for Saffron, her new friends in the Silicon Valley are busy preparing for a STEM Expo, and Saffron is determined to find a project “smart” enough to show everyone she belongs there. But the coffee shop? No customers, no vision, and…tons of debt. And if it closes, Saffron’s family will have to move again. After a class trip to the STEAMology Museum in San Francisco, though, Saffron knows how to save the café—and what to do for her STEM Expo project. But she’s going to need a lot of help.

Can Saffron prove she’s more than a mess-maker and rescue the family business?

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Rie Neal is a children’s book author who loves all things space. Growing up, she was often dragged on her grandfather’s unauthorized tours of NASA’s Ames Research Center, which she didn’t appreciate enough at the time. Eventually, though, she became a full-blown space fan and began to write space-related books for kids. She also has a doctor of audiology degree from the University of Iowa and is nationally certified as an audiologist through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Today, she lives in the Silicon Valley with her husband and kids, where they drag people on (authorized) tours of the NASA Ames visitor center. Learn more about her books at RieNeal.com or connect with her on Instagram (@RieNealWriter).

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1

SWEAT TRICKLING DOWN my neck, I eased the old café door open and a blast of AC hit my face. It was like stepping off Venus and onto Pluto.

My backpack chose that moment to fall off my shoulder. I’d forgotten to zip it again, and books and pencils tumbled out. The alarm clock I’d been taking apart landed below a table near me. Beep! Beep! Beep! I scrambled after it and ripped the remaining wires apart to turn it off. I still hadn’t figured out how it all went back together.

Hopefully, Mr. Millson hadn’t heard it. If he was in a bad mood…

I spotted the small brown bottle rolling away from me and lunged after it. I didn’t want him seeing that, for sure.

At the counter, Mama handed Mrs. Blackburn her usual plain Earl Grey tea (blech). Mama popped the register drawer shut with her hip. “I hope Laurie gets that promotion,” she told Mrs. Blackburn.

“Thank you, dear.” Mrs. Blackburn picked up her purse. “She’s a hard worker. Just like you.”

“Is Mr. Millson here?” I hissed to Mama, stuffing things back into my backpack.

Her eyes flashed.

That was a yes. Lava testing would have to wait.

Once everything was back in my backpack, I dragged myself to the tall stool in the corner behind the main counter. The stool was gummy with years of grime. It had a broken rung I couldn’t fix, and a folded napkin I’d wedged under one leg so it wouldn’t wobble.

Unfortunately, this was my stool. Mr. Millson, who owned the café and was Mama’s boss, let me stay with her after school, but only if I sat right here. It was like being banished to Mercury, the most boring planet in the solar system, because it was just a big rock.

“Well, hello, Miss Saffron.” Mrs. Blackburn waved her bony hand at me.

“Hi, Mrs. Blackburn.” I flopped my planet encyclopedia open on the narrow strip of counter next to me, scooting aside a small, dusty spice rack. How much longer would Mr. Millson stay? I glanced behind Mama to the kitchen. Now I could see him—he was unpacking a box of paper cups. I reached up to make sure my bone-anchored hearing aid was screwed into my skull all the way. It helped me hear better on my right side, but not so much for things that were far away. So from the front door, I couldn’t see or hear Mr. Millson.

“How is the volcano coming, dear?” Mrs. Blackburn had seen me working on it yesterday.

“It’s ready.” I’d spent the last three weeks watching every elephant toothpaste video I could find online, so I’d know the perfect way to design my volcano. The inside had a wide base but a narrow top, so the lava would shoot straight up. “Epic” was an understatement for how the eruption was going to be. “I just need to test the lava. My mom even got me some potassium iodide online. It makes more foam than yeast does.” With a glance at the back, I pulled the small brown bottle out of my backpack. “See?”

Mrs. Blackburn looked at Mama. “Oh. Well. That was nice of you.”

“No, not Mama. Mimi. My other mom.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Blackburn chuckled. “I always forget you have two. Don’t mind this old lady; I don’t think I’ll ever catch up.”

Mama smiled politely as Mrs. Blackburn left.

“Saffron,” Mama hissed as soon as the bells on the door jingled. “Why was that bottle in your backpack? I thought you and Mimi were going to work on your lava at home tonight.”

“Well, yeah. I just… wanted to show my teacher,” I said. “Besides, I don’t need Mimi’s help. I can test it here, by myself. Just a teensy, tiny bit, and after Mr. Millson leaves. The Project Showcase is next week.”

“It sounds messy. I think it’s best if you wait.” Mama stepped closer. “And watch your volume when you ask whether Mr. Millson is here.”

“Sorry,” I said. I didn’t want to get Mama in trouble. I just wanted to be able to do things. Another fun fact about Mercury? It was either really hot or really cold. Just like the café. When Mr. Millson was here, I felt frozen and trapped. But when he was gone, and it was just me and Mama and customers, it felt warm and cozy.

Mama pushed my short, snarly red hair back from the implanted screw behind my right ear. “He’s leaving soon,” she whispered.

The door jingled again then, and Mama went to help the customer.

I went back to my book. The Biggest Space Book Ever was full of cool facts about our solar system. Without it, I wouldn’t have known that it rained diamonds on Uranus and Neptune. Or that Uranus smelled like farts. (Seriously.)

But my favorite planet was Venus. It was covered with volcanoes and lava rivers, and it rained sulfuric acid. It was the most exciting planet in our solar system, and my volcano would fit right in.

My “lava” only had three ingredients. I’d already grabbed the bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the first aid kit yesterday, and hidden it behind the spices. And now I had the potassium iodide. I set them side by side on the counter next to me. The last ingredient I needed was dish soap.

Mama was restocking the glass case full of stale pastries. (The ones she made at home were way better, but Mr. Millson wouldn’t let her sell them here.) I watched her load in a tray of croissants, and then I saw it: Behind her, under the sink, was an extra bottle of clear dish soap.

“I’m taking off, Emily.” Mr. Millson strode out. He saw me just as I made it back to my spot. “And you. Stay on that stool. The last thing we need is a child getting in the way. What are you doing with those?” He pointed to my lava ingredients.

The frozen feeling took over my body. “Uh…”

He squinted at the bottles, then humphed. “I don’t violate child labor laws. No cleaning. You stay on that stool.”

He thought they were cleaning products.

I nodded.

Mama took a deep breath. “Ed. I wonder if you’ve had time to consider what I suggested yesterday, about selling some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies? Muffins from scratch? I’ve been trying out new recipes for…”

Mama and Mr. Millson had some version of this argument once a week. Mama loved baking, and everybody knew that the pastries here were just from the grocery store’s freezer section. Mama thought he should do other things to increase business too. But Mr. Millson wanted to save money. He thought people just needed time to come back after the pandemic. That hadn’t been the right strategy at the last café Mama had worked at, though. It had closed six months ago, and now we were stuck here, because it was the only café left in Cedar Springs, Iowa, where we lived.

With another humph (he was good at those), Mr. Millson finally stormed out the front door.

I felt myself begin to thaw. I hated that Mr. Millson was Mama’s boss. I hated that she had to work here.

I also hated that I had to come here after school. Mr. Millson made me feel as small as bacteria. But despite what he (and maybe also the kids at school) thought, I wasn’t just a mess-maker. I was a scientist. And someday, I was going to win a Nobel Prize. Or maybe I’d just go to a really fancy college.

Something.

And I was starting with a blue ribbon at the Project Showcase.

Mama was now playing peekaboo with the toddler of a friend who’d just come in.

I didn’t have my volcano here, and Mama wanted me to wait. But I could at least mix the hydrogen peroxide and dish soap here at the café. That part wasn’t really a chemical reaction—as in, nothing would happen. It wasn’t until you added the potassium iodide that the huge snake of boiling-hot foam would happen.

On the counter next to me, I poured some hydrogen peroxide into a glass jar. It wasn’t the same perfect shape as my volcano, but this was just a test. I squirted in a bunch of dish soap. With a wooden spoon I stirred.

I stared at the bottle of potassium iodide. It looked so lonely.

Mama was still chatting with the woman and her toddler.

I should have put a lid on the jar. I should have waited for Mimi to help me at home.

But the circuit connecting those thoughts to my hands must’ve shorted.

Because I was already tipping the bottle of potassium iodide into the jar.

The liquid fizzled. And then… it grew.

Orange foam built so fast that it shot straight up. I scrambled off my stool, barely rescuing my space book in time.

“Saffron!” Mama shouted.

The foam didn’t stop. It formed a mushroom-shaped cloud as it gathered in the air above the jar. Then the mushroom splattered onto the walls and back down onto the counter, as more and more and more foam kept coming up out of the jar. Heat radiated out from the chaos, steam rising to the ceiling.

Now, this was lava.

“Wow,” I breathed.

But someone grabbed my arm.

Mr. Millson’s eyes bulged, his face inches from mine. “What have you done?”

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Aladdin
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1665972521
• ISBN 13: 9781665972529
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible