In the Whale Read online

  Hiya! My name Thudd. Best robot friend of Drewd. Thudd know lots of stuff. Why ocean is salty. How octopus change color. Why continents always moving.

  Drewd like to invent stuff. Thudd help! Now Drewd help Uncle Al make new underwater invention. Oop! Accident happen! Adventure happen! Want to come along? Look for giant squid? 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

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost on the Reef

  To Dan and Zack and Dad

  and the real Andrew, with love.

  And to Jim Thomas, Mallory Loehr,

  and all my Random House friends,

  with an ocean of thanks.

  —J.C.G.

  To Jane, Alex, and Joe.

  —M.R.

  CONTENTS

  Andrew’s World

  1. A Whale of a Problem

  2. Bad Time for a Booby

  3. Gulp!

  4. Stomach Problems

  5. Bluffoooweeee!

  6. Heads and Tails

  7. Open Wide!

  8. Big, Big Baby!

  9. Zap!

  10. Who’s Hunting Who?

  True Stuff

  Where to Find More True Stuff

  ANDREW’S WORLD

  Andrew Dubble

  Andrew is ten years old, but he’s been inventing things since he was four. Some of his inventions have gotten him into trouble, like the time he shrunk himself, his cousin Judy, and his little silver robot Thudd down to microscopic size with the Atom Sucker.

  Andrew is in hot water again. He fooled around with his Uncle Al’s underwater vehicle, the Water Bug. Now Andrew, Judy, and Thudd are about to be eaten by a whale!

  Judy Dubble

  Judy is Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin. She thought she was too smart to let Andrew drag her into another crazy adventure. But that was before he showed her the Water Bug…. Now she’s busy trying to save giant squids!

  Thudd

  The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. Thudd is a super-smart robot and Andrew’s best friend. Thudd must never get wet. If he does, his thought chips could get soggy. But Andrew, Judy, and Thudd had to go outside the Water Bug to fix it. Will Thudd stay dry?

  Uncle Al

  Andrew and Judy’s uncle is a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd and the Water Bug. Uncle Al is worried about Andrew, Judy, and Thudd. He’s finishing up a new underwater vehicle called the See Horse so that he can rescue them!

  The Water Bug

  It used to be an old Volkswagen Beetle until Uncle Al turned it into a submarine. Andrew, Judy, and Thudd are pretty safe when they’re inside it. Too bad they had to get out…

  Soggy Bob Sloggins

  This bad guy of the sea is building Animal Universe, the biggest theme park in the world. But Soggy Bob doesn’t care about the animals. He hung a sign above the aquarium in Squid World. It says SOGGY BOB’S GIANT SQUIDWICHES—COMING SOON!

  Now Soggy Bob is after Andrew, Judy, and Thudd, too. Will they be able to stop Soggy Bob from turning giant squids into giant snacks? Or will Soggy Bob get them into the biggest Dubble trouble ever?

  A WHALE OF A PROBLEM

  “YOWZERS!” yelled Andrew as he floated under the shadowy green water. His eyes bugged out. Something that looked like a blue-gray submarine was swimming toward him and his cousin Judy. Its mouth was as big as a garage!

  Swarms of pink shrimp creatures swirled around them. The monster mouth swooped closer.

  “Cheese Louise!” yelled Judy. “It’s coming right at us!”

  Her eyes were wide behind the face mask of her Bubble Duds underwater suit.

  meep … “Blue whale!” came a squeaky voice from a pocket of Andrew’s Bubble Duds. It was Andrew’s little silver robot friend, Thudd.

  meep … “Blue whale big, big, big!” said Thudd. “Big as six brontosaurs! Big as twenty-five elephants! Long as three school buses!”

  Oooooooaaaaaaaaaaauuu! came a huge sound through the special headphones in the helmet of Andrew’s Bubble Duds. The Bubble Duds headphones picked up every sound, even some that humans couldn’t usually hear.

  Andrew could feel the sound, too. It shook him from his head to his toes.

  Judy dove under the Water Bug. The Water Bug was an underwater vehicle made from an old Volkswagen Beetle.

  “Andrew!” yelled Judy. “Get back into the Water Bug right now. That whale is going to eat us!”

  meep … “Drewd and Oody too big for blue whale to eat,” said Thudd. “Blue whale eat tiny shrimpy stuff.”

  Thudd pointed to the little pink creatures all around them. “Called krill,” said Thudd.

  Andrew dove under the Water Bug. He tried to find the button to get them back inside. But the gigantic mouth and its blubbery lips were just inches away!

  “Noooo!” yelled Judy.

  “Holy moly!” yelled Andrew.

  “Noooop!” squeaked Thudd.

  The mouth swooshed up a swimming pool-sized gulp of water—and Andrew, Judy Thudd, and the Water Bug with it!

  Just like that, they were inside the biggest mouth in the world. The rushing water tumbled and tossed them toward the darkness at the back.

  Andrew whammed into something bouncy as a trampoline.

  meep … “Whale tongue!” said Thudd.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “It looks like a big gray sofa pillow, but it’s longer than my living room!”

  meep … “Blue whale tongue weigh more than hippopotamus!” said Thudd.

  Andrew clung to the side of the tongue and looked around. Judy had disappeared! And he couldn’t see the Water Bug anywhere. He tried to pull himself toward the front of the mouth, but water kept pouring in and pushing him back.

  “Judy!” he yelled.

  “Up here, Bug-Brain!” came Judy’s voice.

  BAD TIME FOR A BOOBY

  Andrew looked up. Around the edge of the whale’s mouth, in the place where teeth would be, were rows of black fringes. They were as long as a person’s leg and hung down like a curtain all around the whale’s mouth. Judy was clinging to a piece of the fringes.

  “It’s like I landed in some disgusting car wash,” she said.

  meep … “Oody hanging on baleen,” said Thudd. “Made from same stuff as fingernails. Whale scoop up millions, millions of krill. Squash water out of mouth with tongue. Krill get stuck in baleen. Tongue scoop krill from baleen.”

  “Then I’d better get off this stupid stuff before I get squashed and swallowed, too!” Judy said.

  She let go of the baleen and swam down to the tongue next to Andrew.

  “Hey!” she said, pointing below the tongue. “There’s something shiny down there. It’s got to be the Water Bug!”

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” said Andrew. “Let’s get it and get out of here!”

  Just then a clump of seaweed smacked into Andrew. As he tugged it off, he accidentally pulled open the pocket with Thudd in it!

  The little Bubble Bag that kept Thudd dry flipped out.

  “Thudd!” cried Andrew.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Judy.

  “Thudd fell out of my pocket!” Andrew said.

  Andrew squinted through the rushing water. All he could see was little pink krill. But then something large and shaggy and white swirled past.

  It couldn’t be a bird, thought Andrew. Could it?

  But it was! It looked like a seagull with big red webbed feet and a long blue beak. And caught in
its beak was Thudd.

  Andrew reached out for the bird and snagged a big red foot!

  “Thudd!” yelled Andrew.

  Andrew wedged himself between the whale’s tongue and lip. Then he tugged the Bubble Bag, with Thudd inside, from the bird’s beak. Andrew tucked Thudd back into the pocket of his Bubble Duds.

  meep … “Booby bird grab Bubble Bag,” said Thudd.

  “It really is a silly-looking bird,” said Judy.

  “But it’s not nice to make fun of it,” said Andrew, still holding on to the bird. “It saved Thudd.”

  meep … “Not make fun!” said Thudd. “Bird name is red-footed booby. Fishing bird. Booby hold breath and dive to catch fish. Whale catch booby! Booby catch Thudd!”

  The rush of water slowed. It was getting darker. The gigantic mouth was closing!

  Judy quickly snapped on Andrew’s mini-flashlight.

  Andrew felt a sharp tapping on his arm. The booby was pecking him. The bird cocked its head and looked up at him, then blinked its beady black eyes.

  meep … “Drewd and Oody breathe cuz of Bubble Duds,” said Thudd. “Booby not hold breath much longer!”

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. “We have to do something fast. Judy, hang on to him. I need to check my pockets.”

  Judy slipped the flashlight into a pocket of her Bubble Duds and grabbed the booby.

  Tat! Tat! Tat! The booby was pecking at Judy’s face mask.

  “Knock it off, booby!” she said.

  Andrew reached into a front pocket. Nothing there. He tried another pocket and found something squishy. It was a patch for the Bubble Duds, in case the underwater suit got torn.

  “Perfect!” Andrew said. He stretched the patch over the booby’s head and wrapped it firmly around the bird’s neck. There was just enough to make a helmet for the booby. Just its beak was sticking out.

  The bumpy green Bubble Duds material had bubbles of oxygen in it and pulled oxygen out of the water, too. Now the booby could breathe.

  “Gack!” squawked the booby.

  Judy handed the booby back to Andrew.

  As the whale’s mouth closed, the baleen from the top of the mouth slipped below the whale’s bottom lip. It was dark as night, except for the beam of light shining up from the flashlight in Judy’s pocket.

  Suddenly the giant tongue pushed up! The roof of the giant mouth was only inches above them!

  meep … “Hide under tongue!” said Thudd.

  Andrew and Judy slid below the tongue. Andrew felt the baleen brushing the top of his head. It was stiff and plasticky.

  SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH…

  The humongous tongue was squishing water out through the baleen! Andrew, Judy, and the booby were squashed against the side of the whale’s mouth.

  In a few seconds, all the water was gone. Andrew and Judy were left smooshed against the baleen and covered with krill.

  “I feel something sucking,” cried Judy.

  “Me too!” yelled Andrew.

  The sucking started at Andrew’s feet, then pulled at his legs, then dragged at his whole body. It was like the whale’s mouth was a vacuum cleaner and he was a dust bunny.

  “Yikes!” hollered Judy. “We’re getting swallowed!”

  GULP!

  The beam of the flashlight narrowed to a thin thread as Judy disappeared down the whale’s throat.

  “Errrgggh!” yelled Andrew as his legs were pulled into the throat. It felt like the tightest rubber band was wrapping itself around him.

  “Gack! Gack! Gack!” cried the booby.

  Andrew held the booby over his head to keep it from being squashed. The throat squeezed and tugged and dragged Andrew down and down. It was like getting swallowed by a giant snake!

  meep … “Muscles in throat take us to whale stomachs!” said Thudd.

  Andrew could barely breathe. He felt a pile of krill plop down on his head.

  THUMPA THUMPA THUMPA came a muffled drum-like sound.

  meep … “Hear heart of whale beating?” asked Thudd. “Heart is big as Water Bug!”

  Ploorp!

  It was the sound of Judy plopping out of the throat.

  “Yeeeuuuw!” came Judy’s voice from below.

  For the first time, Andrew was glad to hear Judy say “Yeeeuuuw!” It meant she wasn’t totally squashed!

  Ploorp!

  Andrew and the booby landed next to Judy in a heap of krill.

  “Whew!” said Andrew, taking a big breath. “At least there’s room to breathe.”

  “Gack!” The booby hopped out of Andrew’s arms. It shook out its feathers, stretched its wings, and gobbled up a beakful of krill.

  “Pee-yew!” said Judy. “What a stinky place!”

  meep … “First stomach of whale!” said Thudd. “Whale got three stomachs.”

  Andrew grabbed the flashlight and flicked it around. They were in a closet-sized sack. Its yellowish walls were wavy and folded. There were some pebbles at the bottom, near Andrew’s feet.

  The walls of the sack started to ripple.

  Bluuuuuurf!

  Piles of krill poured down from the whale’s throat over Andrew and Judy. The booby fluttered out of the way.

  “Gross-a-mundo!” said Judy, wiping krill off her face mask. “And I’m allergic to seafood. I think I’m getting hives from these things!”

  She started scratching her arms through her Bubble Duds.

  “You’d better not do that,” said Andrew. “You’ll make it worse. Wow! Look at all this junk the whale swallowed.”

  Sticking out of the pile of krill were a tire, a tin can, bottles, a bunch of silver birthday balloons tied with red ribbons, and a rubber duck.

  Judy looked up to the top of the stomach.

  “Maybe we can get out the way we came in,” she said. “Like Santa Claus.” She pointed to where the throat connected with the stomach. It looked like the opening of a dark chimney.

  The rippling walls of the stomach began moving in and out!

  “Uh-oh!” said Andrew.

  “Cheese Louise!” yelled Judy.

  It felt like a giant hand was squeezing the stomach.

  “Gack! Gack!”

  The booby flapped its wings nervously. Andrew wrapped his arms around it to calm it down.

  meep … “Whale not got teeth to smoosh food,” said Thudd. “But whale got three stomachs. First stomach smoosh food. Little stones and pebbles help to smoosh.”

  Thudd pointed to the booby. “Bird not got teeth, either. Bird eat little stones, too.”

  The stomach gave a sudden squoosh that tumbled Andrew off his feet and into the smooshy krill goo.

  “Help!” yelled Judy.

  When Andrew sat up, he saw the top half of Judy sticking out of an opening in the stomach wall.

  Andrew set the booby on a small pile of krill and handed Judy the flashlight. Then he grabbed her arms and tried to pull her back. But the stomach was stronger than Andrew. Judy’s shoulders, then her head, disappeared into the hole.

  The stomach lurched and Andrew flopped backward. Before he could get up, his feet got pulled into the hole!

  Ooofers! thought Andrew. It feels like I’m getting squeezed through a drinking straw!

  Andrew reached for the booby and held it above his head again to protect it.

  After a minute of squishing, ploorp!— Andrew plopped through the hole.

  “Welcome to the purple palace!” said Judy.

  By the beam of the flashlight, Andrew saw he had landed in a purple sack. This stomach was bigger than the one they’d just come from. The walls were wrinkly—and they were squirming!

  meep … “Second stomach!” said Thudd.

  Bluuuuuurf!

  Pink piles of krill started pouring in.

  Judy’s face looked green through her face mask.

  “This is the worst!” she said, wiping pink slime off her Bubble Duds.

  Then something juicy started to ooze from the walls and slowly fill the stomach.

  meep … �
�Stomach make acid to digest food,” said Thudd. “Break food into molecules! Bubble Duds protect Drewd and Oody from acid.”

  “Gack!” said the booby.

  It looked at Andrew and blinked.

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. “There’s not enough Bubble Duds for the bottom of the booby!”

  STOMACH PROBLEMS

  The stomach started churning like a washing machine. The stomach acid was sloshing.

  Judy managed to reach into her pockets and pull out a Bubble Duds patch.

  “This isn’t big enough to help,” she said.

  Just then a stomach rumble tossed Judy into a slimy pink heap.

  “Ick!” she yelled.

  As she kicked her way out, her foot got tangled in the bunch of silver birthday balloons. She pulled them off. One of the balloons was ripped. She untied its ribbon and tossed the balloon to Andrew.

  “Here,” said Judy. “Wrap the booby in this. These balloons are bad for sea animals. Dolphins and birds and seals can choke if they swallow them. But maybe this time a balloon can help a bird.

  “You can use the ribbon to tie the balloon on the booby,” Judy continued. “But don’t let him eat it.”

  Andrew got tossed against the wall of the stomach. It felt like it was made out of bicycle tire. He braced himself against the stomach and stuffed the booby into the torn balloon. He tied it around the bird’s foot with the ribbon.

  As the stomach acid swirled around the stomach, the krill got mushier. Andrew, Judy, and the booby didn’t!

  Suddenly the purple button in the middle of Thudd’s chest started to blink. Andrew and Judy’s Uncle Al, the man who’d invented Thudd and the Water Bug, was about to visit them by hologram.

  Thudd’s purple button popped open and a see-through purple hologram of Uncle Al zoomed out.

  Andrew and Judy were tossing like underwear in the wash. Uncle Al’s smiling face seemed to bounce all over the purplish stomach.