In the Desert : In the Desert (9780307496126) Read online

  Hiya! My name Thudd. Best robot friend of Drewd. Thudd know lotsa stuff about deserts. What bug is good to eat. How to get drink from frog. How spiders live underground.

  Drewd like to invent stuff. Thudd help! But Drewd make lotsa mistakes. Drewd invent shrinking machine. Now Drewd small as ant. Unkie Al try to help Drewd get big again. But gotta go through desert first. Hot! Hot! Hot! Lotsa danger, too. Thudd worried. Want to see what happen? Turn page, please!

  Get lost with

  Andrew, Judy, and Thudd

  in all their exciting adventures!

  Andrew Lost on the Dog

  Andrew Lost in the Bathroom

  Andrew Lost in the Kitchen

  Andrew Lost in the Garden

  Andrew Lost Under Water

  Andrew Lost in the Whale

  Andrew Lost on the Reef

  Andrew Lost in the Deep

  Andrew Lost in Time

  Andrew Lost on Earth

  Andrew Lost with the Dinosaurs

  Andrew Lost in the Ice Age

  Andrew Lost in the Garbage

  Andrew Lost with the Bats

  Andrew Lost in the Jungle

  Andrew Lost in Uncle Al

  Andrew Lost in the Desert

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost with the Frogs

  To Dan, Zack, and the real Andrew,

  with a galaxy of love.

  To the children who read these books: I wish

  you wonderful questions. Questions are

  telescopes into the universe!

  —J.C.G.

  To Cathy Goldsmith, with many thanks.

  —J.G.

  Andrew’s World

  1. Hot! Hot! Hot!

  2. Willy-Nilly

  3. You’d Have to Be Awfully Thirsty to Drink That

  4. What Looks Like a Worm and Tastes Like Peanut Butter?

  5. Tail on the Loose

  6. So Fuzzy, So Soft, So Not a Kitten …

  7. Deep Trouble

  8. Double Dubble Trouble

  9. A Bright Idea

  10. Needle in a Field of Haystacks

  True Stuff

  Where to Find More True Stuff

  Andrew Dubble

  Andrew is ten years old, but he’s been inventing things since he was four. His inventions usually get him in trouble, like the time he accidentally took the Time-A-Tron on a trip to the beginning of the universe.

  Andrew’s newest invention was supposed to save the world from getting buried in garbage. Instead, it squashed Andrew and his cousin Judy down to beetle size. They got hauled off to a dump, thrown up by a seagull, and carried off to the Australian rain forest on the back of a bird. Now they’re crossing the Australian desert with their uncle Al to see if his partner can help them get un-shrunk. But a lot of dangerous surprises lurk in the desert. And Andrew and Judy are about to meet up with them.

  Judy Dubble

  Judy is Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin. She’s been snuffled into a dog’s nose, was pooped out of a whale, and had her pajamas chewed by a Tyrannosaurus—all because of Andrew. Judy had been hoping that her life would get back to normal. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen today.

  Thudd

  The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. Thudd is a super-smart robot and Andrew’s best friend. He has helped save Andrew and Judy from the exploding sun, the giant squid, and the really weird stuff inside Uncle Al. Now can he protect his buddies from the deadly desert?

  The Goa Constrictor

  This giant fake snake is Andrew’s newest invention. Goa is sort of short for Garbage Goes Away. The Goa is supposed to keep the world from getting buried in garbage by squashing rotting vegetables, green meat, and dirty diapers down to teensy-weensy specks. Unfortunately for Andrew and Judy, the Goa doesn’t just shrink garbage. In two minutes and one stinky burp, the Goa can shrink anything—and anyone!

  At first the Goa shrank Andrew and Judy to the size of beetles. But since then, they’ve been changing size more often than some people change their underwear!

  “Erf!” said ant-sized Andrew Dubble. He was inside an empty bottle cap, bouncing into his cousin Judy.

  Their uncle Al had glued the bottle cap to the dashboard of his jeep. It made a safe perch for Andrew and Judy to see the Australian desert as Uncle Al drove through it. Uncle Al had even made them tiny sunglasses from a strip of dark plastic.

  “Get off of me, Bug-Brain,” said Judy, shoving Andrew away. “It’s soooo hot in here!”

  “Urp!” Andrew burped a big garlicky burp. That pizza crumb sure tasted good, he thought.

  “Disgusting boy!” said Judy.

  Uncle Al turned his eyes from the black ribbon of road and glanced in their direction. He adjusted the leaf he had arranged above their heads like a bug-sized umbrella to shade them from the sun.

  “It’s a rough trip through the desert, guys,” said Uncle Al. “The air conditioner isn’t working, so you’d better settle in for a long, hot, bumpy ride.”

  meep … “Desert air hot, hot, hot!” came a squeaky voice from Andrew’s shirt pocket. “Desert sand even hotter. Can fry egg on desert sand.”

  It was Andrew’s little silver robot friend, Thudd. Uncle Al had invented him.

  “I’m getting hungry again,” said Andrew.

  Uncle Al smiled and mopped his face with a handkerchief. “Well, we won’t be stopping for sandy fried eggs,” he said. “It’s almost three o’clock. We’re supposed to meet up with my partner, Winka, by eight p.m. She’s taking pictures of meteor showers deep in the desert. Winka has an idea about how to get you guys unshrunk.”

  Andrew’s latest invention, the Goa Constrictor, was supposed to shrink garbage. But the first time Andrew tried it, he ended up shrinking himself, and Judy and Thudd, too.

  Andrew nodded. “Winka helped us escape from the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago,” he said. “I’ll bet she can help us now.”

  “Before we get stepped on or swatted,” said Judy.

  The afternoon sun burned through the windshield. This must be what it feels like to get cooked, thought Andrew.

  The yellow sand stretched on forever. Here and there, patches of tall, prickly grass looked like sleeping herds of spiny porcupines. Sometimes a scraggly tree poked up like a skeleton. Now and then, a tumbleweed rolled across the road. There wasn’t a house or a sign of another human being anywhere.

  “The desert is like an empty planet,” said Andrew.

  Uncle Al shook his head. “It looks that way now,” he said. “But the desert is full of life. Lots of strange creatures are resting or hiding underground during the hottest hours. They’ll come out to hunt when the sun goes down.

  “The plants look pretty scraggly. But when rain comes, the desert looks like a flower garden. Some seeds and plants come to life almost instantly with just a little water.”

  “Humph,” said Judy. “I haven’t even seen a cactus.”

  Uncle Al nodded. “There are no native cactuses in the Australian desert,” he said.

  Oinga! Oinga! Oinga! came a sound from the front of the jeep. The jeep was slowing down.

  Plunk … plunk … erk…

  The jeep rolled to a stop. A ribbon of steam was curling from under the hood.

  Uncle Al shook his head. “I’ll find out what’s wrong,” he said. “And while I’m doing that, I want you guys to stay put. The desert is a dangerous place. Some of the most deadly animals in the world live here. And not all of them sleep during the day.”

  “Okey-dokey Unkie!” squeaked Thudd.

  Uncle Al got out of the jeep and opened the hood. A cloud of steam puff
ed out.

  “We’ve got a leak,” yelled Uncle Al from the front of the car. “I need to check underneath the jeep. This may take a while.”

  The heat was making Andrew sleepy. He rested his head against the edge of the bottle cap.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew caught a glimpse of something moving. He turned to see a dark cloud whirling near the ground. It was spinning like a top and whipping up the sand. It was heading straight toward the jeep!

  Andrew climbed out of the bottle cap and onto the dashboard.

  “Get back here, Bug-Brain!” yelled Judy. “Uncle Al told us to stay put!”

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” hollered Andrew. “There’s a tornado out there! Uncle Al is under the jeep. I’ll bet he doesn’t even see it!”

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy.

  meep … “Called dust devil,” squeaked Thudd. “Australian people call it willy-willy.

  “Air near sand get super-hot. Super-hot air light, light, light! Little shove from breeze make air spin. Spinning air pick up sand. Make willy-willy.”

  “Stuff a sock in it, Thudd!” said Judy. “The windows are wide open! We’ll get blown away!”

  meep … “Time for purple-button message!” squeaked Thudd.

  There were three rows of three buttons on Thudd’s chest. All the buttons glowed green except for a big purple one in the middle. This was the button for sending an emergency message to Uncle Al’s Hologram Helper.

  Thudd pressed the purple button. It blinked three times and went off.

  Andrew glanced around. Nothing on the dashboard could protect them from the powerful wind.

  Then he looked toward the window. He grabbed Judy’s arm. “Come on,” he said, pulling her toward the opening.

  “Are you nuts-o?” said Judy pulling away.

  “Hurry!” yelled Andrew. “We can hide in the space where the window goes down!”

  They rushed toward the window on the driver’s side.

  Whewwwwwwwwww… came the windy sound of the willy-willy from the passenger’s side.

  They were an inch away from the window when the hot gust hit them. Andrew felt that a giant hair dryer was blowing burning sand against his skin. He closed his eyes to keep out the stinging grains. A sneeze tickled the back of his nose.

  Whooooooooosh!

  Andrew felt his feet lift off the dashboard. He was blowing away like a candy wrapper in a hurricane!

  “Aaaaaaaaah!” came Judy’s voice through the sound of the wind. Judy was squeezing his arm like a boa constrictor.

  Andrew’s stomach jumped and sank as the wind hurled them up and dragged them down and spun them round and round.

  WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

  The wind drowned Judy’s screams.

  Where will the willy-willy take us? Andrew wondered. How will Uncle Al ever find us in this humongous desert?

  Spinning and spinning, Andrew got too dizzy to think about anything but feeling sick. “URP!” A giant garlic burp exploded from his stomach.

  Just as it seemed the willy-willy would drag them through the desert forever, the twisting wind began to slow. Andrew felt himself dropping.

  “Yeeeouch!” His butt had slammed into something hard. And he was underwater! His feet couldn’t touch the bottom and there was water up his nose! He held his breath and popped to the surface.

  “Blaaargh!” Judy spluttered.

  “Holy moly!” said Andrew, opening his eyes. As he treaded water, Andrew saw they had landed in a big, warm puddle beneath a scrawny bush. Judy was bobbing next to him. Thudd had pulled himself up out of Andrew’s pocket, crept up his shirt, and climbed on top of his head.

  “It rained in this part of the desert! A lot!” said Andrew.

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd. “Like Unkie said. Maybe not get lotsa rain for lotsa years. When rain come, water collect in holes. Stay for little while.”

  “Better drink while we can,” said Andrew. He dipped his head and began to slurp.

  “Yikes!” yelped Judy. She splashed madly toward the edge of the puddle. “Something bit my foot!”

  meep … “Dinosaur shrimp!” said Thudd. “Little shrimp hatch from tiny eggs when rain come. Grow fast. Lay eggs in few days.

  “When puddle dry up, shrimp die. But eggs can live lotsa years till rains come. Then eggs hatch.”

  Andrew dog-paddled quickly after Judy.

  They reached the puddle’s shore and climbed onto the shady sand beneath the bush.

  Andrew took in the landscape. Clumps of spiky grass were like islands of giant needles in an ocean of sand. Stony mounds rose high above the grass.

  They look as big as skyscrapers to me, thought Andrew. But they’re probably as tall as Uncle Al.

  Far away a huge wall of rock glowed orange in the sun.

  But there was no jeep, no Uncle Al. This wasn’t the part of the desert they had been driving through.

  “Where are we?” asked Judy.

  Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe Uncle Al will know when he calls us back. There’s a little shade under this bush and we’ve got the puddle for water. We can wait here till Uncle Al comes to get us.”

  Cheweeet! Chweet! Ch … ch … ch … Chaweeet!

  A flock of brightly colored birds, blue ones and green ones, swooped overhead.

  “Parakeets!” said Judy.

  meep … “Lotsa birds in desert,” said Thudd. “Lotsa bugs for birds to eat.”

  “I don’t see any bugs,” said Andrew.

  Judy tucked herself close to the stem of the bush. “We’re bug-sized, Bug-Brain!”

  meep … “Some bugs got colors that hide them,” said Thudd. “Called camouflage. Other bugs just hide.”

  “KAA-muh-flahj” flashed across his face screen.

  “Look!” said Thudd. He pointed to a dark bump in the shady sand under a twig.

  Andrew crept over to see. The bump had two wiry antennas sticking out of it—and two round black eyes!

  “Aw,” said Andrew. “A dead bug.”

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” said Thudd. “Live cricket. Bury itself in sand to hide, to keep cool. Sand cool underneath.”

  Suddenly something snapped around Andrew’s chest from behind. “YEEEEOUCH!” he hollered as sharp spines dug into his ribs.

  Andrew’s feet made a tiny trail in the sand. Then something dragged him up into the bush.

  “Androooooo!” hollered Judy. She grabbed on to Andrew’s feet and pulled.

  Andrew looked up at a pair of huge, toothy pliers—open wide! “Bug jaws!” hollered Andrew.

  meep … “Katydid!” said Thudd. “Kinda big grasshopper. Eat leaves. Eat bugs!

  “Katydid got good camouflage. Hide in bush. Look like twig. Wait for prey.”

  “It could bite my head off with one chomp!” said Andrew. His heart was beating like a bongo drum. Frantically he tried to pry the katydid’s stiff legs off of his chest.

  The katydid was dragging him up into the bush.

  meep … “Katydid hide from birds,” said Thudd.

  Plump … Plop … Ploop …

  The sound was coming from the puddle. Andrew craned his neck to look. The puddle was bubbling!

  Two big black eyes the size of marbles popped out of the puddle. They stared unblinkingly in Andrew’s direction. The creature slowly crept toward the edge of the puddle. Its body looked like a round, puffy brown cushion.

  Mwaaah … mwaaah … mwaaah…

  meep … “Water-holding frog!” squeaked Thudd. “Drink lotsa water when rain come to desert. Then dig tunnel underground. Make cocoon out of old skin. Can stay underground for five years! Come up when rain come again.

  “Sometime thirsty humans dig up water-holding frog. Stick frog butt in mouth and squeeze. Out come water.”

  “Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!” gagged Judy dangling from Andrew’s feet. “I wouldn’t drink water from a frog butt if I was dying of thirst!”

  “Frogs eat bugs,” said Andrew as the katydid dragged him higher up the bush—an
d closer to its jaws. “And that frog must be really hungry if it’s been underground for five years.”

  “You’re going to get eaten by a stupid bug!” hollered Judy. “And I’m going to get eaten by a dumb frog! This is all your fault, Bug-Brain!”

  meep … “Got idea!” squeaked Thudd. “Remember when Drewd fight off beetle in bat cave? Katydids and crickets not like garlic. Drewd got garlic breath. Gotta blow garlic breath on katydid knees.”

  “On its knees?” said Judy.

  meep … “Katydid smell with knees,” said Thudd.

  “Blow on them?” said Andrew. “I can do better than that!”

  Andrew leaned close to one of the prickly legs that had him in its grip.

  “URRRRRP!” Up came a giant burp of garlic breath.

  Suddenly the insect pulled its sharp spines out of Andrew’s ribs. He and Judy were falling!

  Splop!

  Andrew and Judy splashed down into a smaller puddle.

  Splat!

  The fat frog jumped out of the mud toward the bush. In one flick of the frog’s tongue, the katydid disappeared.

  Mwaaah … mwaaah … mwaaah …

  The frog hopped into a nearby patch of grass. He stopped to munch, then disappeared behind a pile of stones.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew, scooping mud off his pants. “Let’s look for a safer place to stay.”

  Just then, the purple button in the middle of Thudd’s chest began to blink.

  It popped open and a beam of purple light zoomed out. At the end of the beam was a pale purple hologram of Uncle Al.

  “Hi, Uncle Al!” shouted Andrew.

  “Hiya, Unkie!” squeaked Thudd.

  “Where are you, Uncle Al?” hollered Judy.

  “What’s important is where are you?” said Uncle Al.

  When Uncle Al visited Andrew and Judy by using his Hologram Helper, he could hear them but not see them.

  “I don’t know,” said Judy, “but we almost got eaten by a katydid. Then we almost got eaten by a frog.”