Read Online The Space Mission Adventure by Sharon M. Draper - Free Book Online

personally.”
    Ziggy felt a little nervous excitement starting to grow in his stomach.
    â€œThis young man, who embodies the spirit of curiosity, sometimes to the extreme”—she smiled andlooked into the audience—“this young man found a piece of jewelry that I had lost. It had great personal importance to me, and I want to thank him personally. Ziggy Colwin, will you come to the stage, please?”
    Team America exploded in cheers of joy as Ziggy made his way to the front, grinning from ear to ear.
    As he climbed on to the stage, Ms. Washington continued. “Of course, Ziggy thought it was an artifact from outer space—actually, he thought lots of things here were the work of space aliens—but that’s the spirit we try to encourage here.”
    Everyone laughed a little.
    â€œZiggy,” she said as he stood next to her. His braids seemed to be in motion as he looked around, shaking a little. “I wish to give you this special award.”
    From the podium she took a medallion that hung on a red-, white-, and blue-striped ribbon and placed it around his neck. Ziggy, suddenly shy, whispered his thanks.
    â€œLadies and gentlemen, please recognize Ziggy Colwin, future astronaut and space explorer, who now wears the title of ‘Captain of Creativity’!”



Ziggy bowed three or four times, spun around twice, then bowed again. The audience roared and laughed and clapped. Team America hooted and cheered until Ms. Washington said, “Okay, Ziggy, you can sit down now!”
    Ziggy, all grins and nervous energy, thanked her once more and bounded from the stage. “Don’t ever doubt the captain, mon!” he whispered to his friends as he sat back down. They gave him high fives, and everyone had to look at the medallion and exclaim over it.
    Finally all the teams were dismissed, and Space Camp was officially over. Ziggy and the rest of the Black Dinosaurs shook hands with Alan and Neil and Cubby, as well as the three girls. They promised to keep in touch by e-mail, but they all knew they probably wouldn’t. Everyone gave Samantha a final hug as parents gathered up their kids and headed to the cars to return to the real world.
    â€œI’ll never forget Team America,” she told them with feeling. They waved and headed to the parking lot.
    â€œSo, was it worth it?” Rico’s father asked as he started up the car.
    â€œCouldn’t have been better, mon!” Ziggy said, sighing contentedly as he snuggled into his pillow in the corner of the backseat. He touched the medallion around his neck and smiled to himself.
    â€œWait till we get back to school and tell the rest of the kids about this!” Rico said.
    â€œThis was better than getting to level ninety-nine on the Mega Mighty Martian Blasters video game, mon!” Ziggy said.
    â€œDid you find any space creatures like you talked about before you left?” Rico’s dad asked.
    The four friends looked at each other and grinned. “Well, Ziggy found some suspicious-looking bananas,” Rashawn began. He was trying to hold back a laugh.
    â€œAnd he discovered some squirrels that might have been from Mars—we didn’t look real close,” Jerome added, almost bursting into laughter.
    â€œAnd we found a space vehicle that maybe some space creatures might have used to hide in,” Ricocontinued, giggling. “But they’d have to eat cement, because that’s what it was filled with!”
    The four friends laughed together as they told Mr. Roman about their adventures. “Actually, Ziggy did find out that Ms. Washington’s stone was over two hundred years old,” Rashawn said. “Maybe it really could have been left here by visitors from another planet.”
    â€œMaybe as a club we can check out some stuff about space invaders on the Internet or at the library when we get home,” Jerome suggested.
    â€œI guess there’s no way to