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  PENGUIN WORKSHOP

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  Text copyright © 2021 by Catherine Hapka and Ellen Vandenberg. Illustrations copyright © 2021 by Penguin Random House LLC.

  All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. PENGUIN and PENGUIN WORKSHOP are trademarks of Penguin Books Ltd, and the W colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

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

  ISBN 9780593095713 (paperback)

  ISBN 9780593095720 (library binding)

  ISBN 9780593095737 (ebook)

  pid_prh_5.6.1_c0_r0

  For Gwyneth, Margot, and Verity—and all the other girls whose dreams are as infinite as the universe—CH & EV

  To Matt, for being my comrade in exploration of this Universe—GR

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Summer Day Splashdown!

  Chapter 2: Meeting Wallace

  Chapter 3: The Perfect Team

  Chapter 4: Liftoff!

  Chapter 5: On the Moon

  Chapter 6: Searching for Thunder Moon Rocks!

  Chapter 7: Lost on the Moon!

  Chapter 8: New Ideas

  Chapter 9: Going Home

  Chapter 10: Down to Earth

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Chapter 1

  SUMMER DAY SPLASHDOWN!

  “Wake up, Astro Cat! Pay attention to the controls,” I said. “We need to practice splashdowns.”

  Astro Cat yawned. He is a little lazy, but he’s a pretty good first mate.

  “Val,” Mom called from across the yard. “Please watch the Baby—he’s squashing my petunias.”

  Mom was working on some experiments in her garden. She’s a botanist. That’s a scientist who works with plants.

  I am a scientist who works in space! Daddy is one of those, too. He is an astrophysicist. He was working at his lab today. And I was working at my lab. That’s the gazebo in our backyard. Today I was pretending it was the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

  “Sure, Mom,” I said. “The Apollo 11 had a crew of three. The Baby can be part of the team.”

  Soon the three of us were in the spaceship. I double-checked my book, The Universe, to make sure I was getting everything right.

  “Okay, let’s focus, people,” I told my crew. “A splashdown is how spaceships come back to Earth. A parachute helps them slow down as they fall through the atmosphere. Then they splash into the water to soften their landing.”

  Astro Cat yawned again, and the Baby was watching a butterfly. I wasn’t sure they were paying close enough attention. But that was why I was the commander!

  “We’ll only have one chance to land back on Earth, so it’s important to be prepared,” I warned. I put on my helmet and set my stomp-on rocket launcher at the edge of the gazebo. “Begin the countdown, second mate!”

  The Baby gurgled. He tossed a Cheerio out of the gazebo. That reminded me to put his helmet on, too. Astro Cat was sleeping, so I decided to let him be.

  “Five!” I counted.

  More Cheerios went flying.

  “Four, three, two, one . . . liftoff!” I yelled.

  I stomped on the launcher. The rocket flew toward Daddy’s birdbath, ready to splashdown—and then right over it!

  “Oh no!” I cried. “Malfunction! Malfunction! It went over the hedge!”

  Suddenly the hedge started shaking. Then a face I’d never seen before poked through the leaves!

  Chapter 2

  MEETING WALLACE

  “Hi,” the face said. “I’m Wallace. We just moved in.”

  Then a hand appeared. It was holding my rocket.

  “Is this yours?” Wallace asked.

  “That’s my rocket,” I told him, grabbing it back.

  Mom looked up. “Oh, hello,” she greeted Wallace. “I heard we had new neighbors with an eight-year-old! Look, Val—a kid your age right next door! Come on over, Wallace. Welcome to the neighborhood!”

  He came in through the gate. “Thanks,” he told Mom. “My parents and Gramps and I just moved in, but we’ve been visiting for ages. My aunts and uncles and cousins all live here.”

  “How nice,” Mom said with a smile. “That should make it a little easier getting settled.”

  “I hope so.” Wallace smiled back at her. Then he looked at me. “Hi,” he said. “Is that a spacesuit? I like it.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said. “I made it myself.”

  “Cool,” he said.

  I noticed he was wearing a weird T-shirt. It said “Catch a Ride on a Comet.”

  “Why would you want to catch a ride on a comet?” I asked. “It’s not like they go anywhere interesting. All they do is orbit the sun—just like Earth.”

  “How do you know that?” Wallace asked.

  Mom chuckled. “Val knows everything about space,” she said. “That’s why we call her Astronaut Girl.”

  Wallace wandered toward the gazebo as Mom went back to work. “Wow!” he said. “That looks just like the alien rocket ship Commander Neutron used to breach a black hole in episode number sixty-three!”

  Ugh! Now I knew where his T-shirt was from. “You watch Comet Jumpers, don’t you?” I said. “That’s a goofy show.”

  “It’s not goofy, it’s great!” he said. “It’s my favorite show.”

  I rolled my eyes. If that was his favorite show, we probably wouldn’t have anything else in common, either.

  “I’ve seen Comet Jumpers a few times,” I told him. “I wasn’t impressed. The science is totally wrong.”

  Wallace shrugged. “The show is set in the year 3000,” he said. “I’m sure science will be way more advanced by then. Use your imagination! It could happen.”

  I noticed the Baby trying to crawl down the gazebo steps. I picked him up before he could fall.

  “Is that your brother?” Wallace asked.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “He’s my second mate. And that’s Astro Cat over there. He’s my first mate, but he’s taking a break right now.”

  “Cool,” Wallace said. “Just like Gloob is Commander Neutron’s first mate.”

  “Yeah, but we’re not the crew of some imaginary ship from a TV show,” I said. “We’re the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.”

  “Apollo 11?” Wallace said. “I think I’ve heard of that . . .”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Apollo 11 was only one of the most famous space missions in history! Daddy taught me all about it when I was still in diapers.

  “I should hope you’ve heard of it!” I said. “The Apollo 11 mission was the first time humans set foot on the moon.”

  “Cool,” he said. “Now I get why they call you Astronaut Girl.”

  “That’s right,” I said. “And did you know Apollo 11 almost never landed at all? There was a problem with the ship’s computer, and Neil Armstrong had to take over and steer it himself. When
they landed, there was only twenty-five seconds’ worth of rocket fuel left, and—”

  “Did you say rocket fuel?” Wallace interrupted. He pulled a battered notebook with a pencil stuck in the middle like a bookmark out of his pocket. “Cool term, I should use that in my story.”

  “What story?” I asked.

  He explained that Comet Jumpers was running a contest for fans to send in story ideas. The best one would become a future episode.

  “But I’m going to do better than that,” Wallace said. “I’m going to write an entire script! I already have lots of notes and ideas. See?”

  New Idea:

  Zixtar activates the Beamatron with his hooked tail when the bad guys tie up his tentacles.

  I read what he wrote. “Who’s Zixtar?” I asked.

  He pulled something else out of his pocket. It was an action figure.

  “I made it myself,” he said proudly. “This is Zixtar. He’s a new character I created for my episode. He’s an interstellar pirate!”

  He held out the action figure, and I grabbed it for a better look. It was actually pretty cool. Zixtar was made out of polymer clay, like the stuff I used to make my solar system project for the science fair. He had five tentacles. Each was a different color and had a different tool on the end.

  “What does the hook on his tail do?” I asked.

  “That’s for battling space monsters,” Wallace said. “His tentacles have all kinds of powers.”

  I was a teensy bit impressed. Was Wallace really writing a TV script? Had he really created a whole new character?

  Even so, I could tell he needed my help. “That’s all cool,” I said. “But there’s no such thing as a Beamatron like on the show. You can’t mush everyone’s cells together into a giant ball of energy and then shoot them into space! They’d be lost forever. But there could be a way to move a spaceship full of people if it’s stuck somewhere without power . . .”

  “Oh yeah?” Wallace said, suddenly interested. “What would do that?”

  “Solar sails,” I said with a grin.

  “What’s a solar sail?” Wallace asked.

  “It’s like a sailboat in space, but instead of wind, it uses solar power and mirrors to make ships move. See, you don’t need a silly Beamatron! Just use solar sails instead. Think like a scientist!”

  “Hmm, interesting,” he said. “Solar sails could totally save the day when Commander Neutron’s spaceship loses power while battling giant space bees . . .” He jotted down a few words. “Hey, if your idea makes it into the show, maybe the producers will put your name on-screen.”

  “They’d better,” I said. “Because I’m your new cowriter!”

  Chapter 3

  THE PERFECT TEAM

  “My cowriter?” Wallace said uncertainly.

  “Of course!” I exclaimed. “You know the show, I know the science. We’re the perfect team.”

  “Hmm,” Wallace said. “I guess I could use some science help.”

  “Great,” I said. “Let’s start right now.”

  We decided to hold our first writers’ meeting inside the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Wallace started heading toward the commander’s chair, but I beat him to it. I grabbed my space pack off the second mate’s chair, since the Baby was playing with some blocks on the floor and wasn’t sitting there anyway.

  “You can sit here,” I told Wallace.

  Wallace sat down and opened his notebook. “Here’s what I have so far,” he said. “Zixtar is battling to save the endangered Cuddle Morphs.”

  “What’s a Cuddle Morph?” I asked.

  He smiled. “It’s a new kind of alien. They can transform into any creature as long as it’s furry.” His smile faded a little. “My friend Carlos from my old neighborhood helped me come up with the idea.”

  He looked kind of sad all of a sudden. I wasn’t sure why. I decided not to mention that morphing isn’t as simple as he made it sound. We could deal with that later.

  “Okay,” I said instead. “How does Zixtar save the Cuddle Morphs?”

  Wallace perked up again. “He needs more weapons, so he goes to the moon to collect the biggest Thunder Rocks he can find.”

  “Hold on a second,” I said. “Are you talking about Earth’s moon? Because there’s no such thing as Thunder Rocks.”

  “Sure there are! They were on episode fourteen,” Wallace said. “They explode when you throw them at stuff, with purple thunderbolts and a big BOOM!”

  I shook my head. “You need my help even more than I thought,” I said. “There’s no thunder on the moon—in fact, there’s no weather at all. Moon rocks are made of many of the same minerals we have on Earth. They don’t explode!”

  Wallace didn’t look impressed. “How do you know?” he asked. “Have you been there?”

  “No, but I know the science,” I said.

  Wallace grinned. “If you haven’t been there, you don’t know for sure that there’s no such thing as Thunder Rocks,” he said. “Anyway, this is just a TV show. Use your imagination!”

  “Scientists use their imagination all the time,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean you have to make up stuff that doesn’t exist.”

  “Whatever,” Wallace said. “All I know is if I had a Beamatron here right now, I could beam up to the moon and find some Thunder Rocks.”

  I scowled. “You can’t just BEAM UP to the moon!” I exclaimed. “Scientists and astronauts worked really hard for years to make space travel happen! If you think like a scientist, our script will be a lot better.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Wallace said. “The Beamatron is really cool—you get in it, and then all your cells are scrambled and shot through a hole in space to get you where you’re going.”

  “I already told you, that would never work!” I cried. “It’s ridiculous! Anyway, the real story of space travel is way cooler than that kind of junk.”

  “Nothing’s cooler than the Beamatron,” Wallace argued. “Well, maybe Thunder Rocks are a little cooler . . .”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. “You know nothing!” I yelled. “I wish everyone had to go through basic astronaut training.”

  “I wish there really was such a thing as a Beamatron,” Wallace said at the same time.

  WHOOOSH! Suddenly the gazebo felt like it was tilting and spinning. Astro Cat squawked and hid under my space pack, and I heard the Baby gurgling happily. Everything went dark—except for a sky full of stars . . .

  Chapter 4

  LIFTOFF!

  “What’s happening?” Wallace cried.

  I wasn’t sure. But scientists love figuring out tough questions. “Let’s collect the data,” I said.

  Everything stopped spinning. We weren’t in the gazebo anymore.

  “Where’d this weird little room come from?” Wallace sounded confused. “How did we get here?”

  I looked around.

  “It looks familiar in here,” I said thoughtfully. There was a wall of computers in front of us with a window on each side. Astro Cat and the Baby were there, too.

  Wallace’s eyes looked really big. “Whoa!” he cried, pointing out the window. “Is that Earth?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I know exactly where we are. We’re on the REAL Apollo 11 heading to the moon!”

  “What?!” Wallace yelled. “That’s amazing! How did we get here?”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a grin. “But I’ve been training for this moment my whole life!”

  “What do you mean?” Wallace asked.

  “I’ll be the commander,” I said.

  “Why do you get to be the commander?” Wallace argued.

  “Because I’m Astronaut Girl, and Astronaut Girl always knows what to do!” I said.

  He frowned but didn’t say anything. So I looked around.

  “Astro Cat, you’re the capsule
communicator,” I decided.

  “Communicator?” Wallace said. “He can’t even talk!”

  I ignored him. “The Baby can be lunar module pilot.”

  “Hey, if the Baby gets an important job, I should have one, too!” Wallace said.

  “Fine. You can be the command module pilot,” I told him.

  “What’s a command module?” he asked.

  I explained that Apollo 11 was made up of three separate spacecraft, called modules. We were in the command module, which was called Columbia. That was where the astronauts lived and worked. The service module contained the rocket engine and storage space. The lunar module was called Eagle. That was the part that landed on the moon.

  As I talked, Wallace started floating around. It was distracting.

  “Hold still,” I told him.

  “No way, this is fun!” Wallace grinned and did a flip in the air. “I’m weightless!”

  The Baby was floating, too. He giggled and tried to grab Zixtar as he floated past. I looked at Astro Cat. He was the only one being sensible. He was using his claws to hang on to the commander’s chair.

  “It’s called zero gravity,” I said.

  Wallace wasn’t listening. He did three backflips in a row.

  “Being weightless makes me thirsty,” he said. He pulled a juice box out of his pocket.

  “No!” I cried.

  Too late. Droplets of grape juice flew everywhere.

  The Baby opened his mouth and tried to swallow a few droplets, but his helmet got in the way.

  “Way to go, Baby. That’s a good idea!” Wallace chased down the rest of the juice droplets. “Mmm, drinking in space is much more exciting than on Earth!”

  I sighed. “That’s why you can’t bring regular food and drink to space,” I said. “Otherwise there would be crumbs floating around everywhere. All food has to be freeze-dried or thermo-stabilized—”

  “Thermo what?” Wallace asked.