Ride Sally - Who Was Sally Ride?

Who Was
Sally Ride?

Who Was
Sally Ride?

By Megan Stine
Illustrated by Ted Hammond

For Maddy, Travis, and Daryl, who all know how to reach for the starsMS

To MomTH

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,
Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia

(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Penguin Books (South Africa), Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue,
Parktown North 2193, South Africa

Penguin China, B7 Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North,
Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights.
Purchase only authorized editions.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Text copyright 2013 by Megan Stine. Illustrations copyright 2013 by Ted Hammond.
Cover illustration copyright 2013 by Nancy Harrison. Published by
Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-0-698-15130-7

One day in 1977, Sally Ride walked across the campus of her college and picked up a school newspaper. She flipped though the pages and scanned the job ads. All of a sudden, she saw something incredible! The US space program was looking for new astronauts. And for the first time ever they were encouraging women to apply.

Sally had been in college for eight long years at that point. Studying hard, she had already earned three degrees. Soon she would graduate with her fourth degree, in physics. She was planning to be a scientist and a college professor.

It had never occurred to Sally to be an astronaut. However, the minute she saw that ad, she knew she wanted to apply. She sent in her application that very same day. Even though she had never flown a plane, she believed she could do the job.

More than eight thousand men and women from all over the country answered the ad. But NASAthe National Aeronautics and Space Administrationonly needed thirty-five new astronauts. Would Sally be one of them?

Yes! In January 1978, she got a phone call from an official at NASA, asking if she still wanted the job.

Yes, sir! she said right away.

Normally Sally was calm and levelheaded. But when she called her mother with the news, she was almost breathless. How could she be calm about something as exciting as this? She was going to be an astronaut! And although she didnt know it yet, she was going to be the first American woman in space.

Sally Kristen Ride was born on May 26, 1951, in Encino, California.

Her parents were both teachers. Her father, Dale Ride, was a college professor. Her mother, Joyce Ride, had taught full-time before Sally was born. After that, Joyce Ride stayed home to take care of her children. But Joyce also worked at her church, taught English to foreign students, and was a counselor in a womens jail.

Two years after Sally was born, her baby sister, Karen, came along. Sally couldnt pronounce Karen so she called her Bear. The name stuck! Even as a grown-up, Karen was called Bear Ride by everyone who knew her.

The house Sally grew up in was filled with books, and Sally read everythingNancy Drew mysteries, Mad magazine, James Bond spy novels, science fiction, and grown-up science magazines. She even read a book called Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint! From the age of five, she also read the newspaper. Her favorite section was the sports page. She knew the baseball statistics by heart.

Reading was a great indoor activity, but Sally loved being outdoors most of all. Whenever she could, she went out to play football or baseball with the neighborhood boys. And the boys were happy to have her. Why not? She was better than most of them! In fact, Sally was usually picked first for the team.

When she was young, Sally thought she would grow up to be a quarterback for the University of California, Los Angeles, Bruins. Or maybe a shortstop for the Dodgers. She didnt think anything would stop her. She believed a girl could do anything.

When Sally turned nine, her parents decided to go on a family adventure. Her father took a year off from teaching so they could travel together in Europe. For a while, they lived in Yugoslavia and had a dog there as a pet. Joyce and Dale Ride tutored the girls during the trip, to make sure Sally and Bear kept up with their subjects. But they also believed that traveling and seeing the world was just as important as school.