With the Dinosaurs Read online

  Hiya! My name Thudd. Best robot friend of Drewd. Thudd know lots of stuff. How stars get born. Where planets come from. What happened to dinosaurs.

  Drewd and Unkie Al like to invent stuff. Unkie invent time machine. Oop! Drewd have snack accident. Drewd and Oody go back in time! Want to come? 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

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost in the Ice Age

  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. This Is BIG!

  2. Looking for Trouble

  3. Eggs-actly Right!

  4. On Shaky Ground

  5. THUMMMPP … THUMMMPP … THUMMMPP …

  6. Quick Thinking

  7. What a Croc!

  8. It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Flying Lizard!

  9. Open Wide!

  10. Nomoresauruses

  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. Andrew’s inventions usually get him into trouble, like the time he shrunk himself, his cousin Judy, and his little silver robot Thudd smaller than a beetle’s brain.

  Today a problem with a snack has sent Andrew traveling through time. He’s landed 65 million years ago—the age of dinosaurs!

  Judy Dubble

  Judy is Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin. At nine o’clock, she got into her pajamas in a cabin in Montana. A few hours later, she was staring into the eyes of a humongous Alamosaurus. According to Judy, it’s all Andrew’s fault.

  Thudd

  The Handy Ultra-Digital Detective. Thudd is a super-smart robot and Andrew’s best friend. He has helped to save Andrew and Judy from deadly octopuses, killer jellyfish, and the giant squid. But can he save them from being eaten by a Tyrannosaurus?

  Uncle Al

  Andrew and Judy’s uncle is a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd and the Time-A-Tron time-travel machine. But before he finished the Time-A-Tron, he was kidnapped and hidden in one of Earth’s ice ages! Will Andrew and Judy be able to find him?

  The Time-A-Tron

  It looks like a giant cooking timer, but it’s really a time-travel machine. Too bad Uncle Al got kidnapped before he could make sure it worked!

  Doctor Kron-Tox

  The mysterious Doctor Kron-Tox invented a time machine, too—the Tick-Tox Box. He’s used it to kidnap Uncle Al and his partner, Winka Wilde. But why?

  Beeper Jones

  Andrew and Judy found nine-year-old Beeper 360 million years ago. He likes to collect dog-sized scorpions and six-foot centipedes, and—oh yes—he’s Doctor Kron-Tox’s nephew. Other than that, he’s not a bad kid.

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” shouted ten-year-old Andrew Dubble. Huge eyes were staring at him through the dome of the Time-A-Tron time-travel vehicle. “I think it’s a brontosaur!”

  The Time-A-Tron had landed in a forest 65 million years ago. It had also landed on the long, thick, scaly tail of a humongous dinosaur!

  The dark reptile eyes staring in at Andrew did not look pleased.

  Judy, Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin, leaned forward in her seat. “Cheese Louise!” she said. “Its neck is as long as a bus!”

  “That’s no brontosaur,” said Beeper Jones. Beeper was a nine-year-old boy they had rescued 300 million years ago.

  Beeper pointed a gadget that looked like a remote control at the long-necked creature.

  ping … ping … ping …

  “The DNA Detector says it’s an Alamosaurus,” said Beeper.

  meep … “Alamosaurus look like brontosaur,” squeaked a voice from Andrew’s pocket. It was Thudd, Andrew’s little silver robot and best friend. “Long as two school buses. Weigh as much as forty cars.”

  Thudd pointed to a picture of an Alamosaurus on his face screen.

  bong … “Brontosaurs are not alive now,” said the echoey voice of the Time-A-Tron. “They have been extinct for eighty million years.”

  The Alamosaurus opened its mouth. Inside were short, stumpy teeth.

  “It looks angry enough to eat us,” said Judy.

  meep … “Alamosaurus is plant-eater,” said Thudd. “Use teeth to grab leaves, not chew. Got stones inside stomach to grind up food.”

  Suddenly the Alamosaurus smacked its tail on the ground. The Time-A-Tron flipped into the air like a pancake!

  The Time-A-Tron came down on its side, whammed into a tree, and rolled downhill.

  “Yerggghhh!” yelled Andrew.

  “Burf!” said Judy.

  “Whoopee!” yelled Beeper from the backseat. “This is more fun than a roller coaster. It’s our own dino coaster!”

  Andrew smiled.

  The Time-A-Tron slammed into a small hill.

  Andrew, Judy, and Beeper stayed in their seats until they stopped feeling dizzy. Then Andrew unbuckled his seat belt.

  “We’d better get out and start looking for Professor Wilde,” he said.

  Earlier, the DNA Detector had detected a human. There weren’t supposed to be any humans on Earth now. But Professor Winka Wilde had been kidnapped by Beeper’s uncle, the evil Doctor Kron-Tox, and hidden in time. If there was a human here, it had to be her.

  bong … “Wait, children!” said the Time-A-Tron. “I cannot allow you to leave. It is dangerous out there. You could be trampled by an Alamosaurus.”

  “Naaaah,” said Beeper. “Those big old plant-eaters are pretty slow.”

  “Yeah,” said Andrew. “We can see it coming and get out of the way.”

  bong … “I do not want to frighten you,” said the Time-A-Tron, “but we have arrived at the time of the most fearsome creature that has ever lived—the Tyrannosaurus rex.”

  meep … “Name mean ‘tyrant lizard king,’” said Thudd. “Long as railroad car! High as two-story house! Teeth long as bananas! Eat five hundred pounds of meat in one bite!”

  “Eeeuw!” Judy shivered. “It could eat six Andrews in one chomp.”

  “I’ll check for Tyrannosauruses,” said Beeper. He typed “Tyrannosaurus” into the DNA Detector and pressed a button.

  ping … ping … ping …

  “Hot doggies!” said Beeper. “The DNA Detector says there is a Tyrannosaurus out there—and it’s real close!”

  “How close?” asked Judy.

  “Only six feet away!” said Beeper.

  Judy rolled her eyes. “If a Tyrannosaurus was six feet away I think we’d notice,” she said.

  “Let me see the DNA Detector,” said Andrew.

  Beeper handed the gadget to Andrew.

  Andrew pushed a black button labeled “Find It.” A little display blinked “6 Feet.”

  Andrew looked around. “Maybe this thing doesn’t work on Tyrannosauruses,” he said. “Maybe there really aren’t any Tyrannosauruses out there. So let’s go.”

  bong … “No,” said the Time-A-Tron. “I do not w
ant to explain to Professor Dubble that his favorite children were eaten by dinosaurs.”

  Professor Dubble was Andrew and Judy’s uncle. They called him Uncle Al. Doctor Kron-Tox had snatched him, too, and hidden him in an ice age.

  “But we’ve got to rescue Winka Wilde,” pleaded Andrew. “Uncle Al wouldn’t like it if we left his partner stuck here.”

  bong … “Professor Wilde is a brilliant scientist,” said the Time-A-Tron. “If she is here, she will find us.”

  “I wanna take a picture of that Alamosaurus,” said Beeper. “If my camera still works.”

  bong … “Absolutely not!” said the Time-A-Tron.

  Beeper sighed. “Okay,” he said. “I guess you’re right. Where’s the bathroom? I gotta go.”

  bong … “It is in the bottom compartment, Master Beeper,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Behind the bulge labeled ‘Tachyons.’”

  Beeper pulled up the door in the floor and went below.

  BZERK! BZERK! BZERK!

  An alarm was going off!

  bong … “Noooo!” cried the Time-A-Tron. “Master Beeper has activated the emergency escape!”

  Andrew and Judy peered into the bottom compartment. The oval door to the outside was open.

  “Beeper!” yelled Andrew.

  “Come back, you little bozo!” yelled Judy.

  There was no answer. They looked out through the clear dome of the Time-A-Tron.

  Andrew spied a spot of orange moving through the tall ferns. It was Beeper’s T-shirt.

  “I see the little creep!” said Judy.

  “Now there are two people we have to look for,” said Andrew. “We’ve got to go.”

  bong … “Children!” said the Time-A-Tron.“In this forest live the fiercest meat-eaters on Earth. You have nothing to protect you. Your colorful pajamas are signs that say ‘Here I am! Eat me!’”

  “It’s not our fault that we’re wearing our stupid pajamas,” said Judy. “We were getting ready for bed when Doctor Kron-Tox dragged off Uncle Al.”

  Andrew looked out through the Time-A-Tron’s dome.

  “There are lots of big plants out there,” he said. “We’ll creep around under the tall ferns. If there are any Tyrannosauruses, they won’t see us.”

  meep … “Tyrannosaurus got big sense of smell,” said Thudd. “Use smell to hunt.”

  “Mmmmmm …,” hummed the Time-A-Tron. “There may be a way for you to be safe out there.”

  “What is it?” asked Andrew.

  bong … “First,” said the Time-A-Tron, “you must promise to do exactly as I say.”

  Judy folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t promise anything before I know what it is,” she said.

  bong … “You are wise, Miss Judy,” said the Time-A-Tron. “But I must have your promise.”

  “It’s okay” said Andrew to Judy. “The Time-A-Tron wouldn’t tell us to do anything stupid.”

  “Oh, all right,” said Judy.

  bong … “This will not be pleasant,” said the Time-A-Tron. “But it could keep you alive. Listen closely.

  “As we were rolling along the ground, we ran over a pile of Alamosaurus … um … dung.”

  “You mean poop?” asked Andrew.

  bong … “Yes,” said the Time-A-Tron. “I must insist that you cover yourselves with Alamosaurus poop before you go into the forest.”

  “Whaaaat?” yelled Judy.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew.

  bong … “Most animals will stay away from, er, poop. It will be like a smelly suit of armor.”

  “No way!” said Judy.

  Andrew looked at Judy. “You promised,” he said. “Maybe we can, uh, hold our noses.”

  Judy thought for a second. “How about this?” she said. “We can disguise ourselves as ferns. We’ll stick giant fern fronds into the waistbands of our pajamas.”

  bong … “Not good enough, Miss Judy. The Tyrannosaurus and other dinosaurs will still sniff you out.”

  “Well,” she said, “how about if we dip the ferns in the dino poop.”

  bong … “Good thinking, Miss Judy!” said the Time-A-Tron. “You are very brave. Be careful.”

  “We will,” said Andrew. “Now where’s that dino poop?”

  bong … “It is back there,” said the Time-A-Tron.

  A silver tube poked up from the control panel. Out of the silver tube shot a thin ray of green light. It zoomed through the Time-A-Tron’s dome and into the forest.

  “We’ll find it,” said Andrew. He slipped through the door in the floor.

  bong … “Just follow your noses,” said the Time-A-Tron.

  Judy opened a small door under the control panel. A pair of beady black eyes stared up at her. A pointy brown nose twitched. It was the shrew that had gotten into the Time-A-Tron when it was still in Uncle Al’s laboratory.

  “You stay right here till we get back,” said Judy. She closed the little door, then followed Andrew into the lower compartment.

  Andrew was poking around. “Um, I don’t see the owl,” he said.

  A little owl had followed the shrew into the Time-A-Tron before they left Montana.

  “I’ll bet it got out when Beeper left,” said Judy.

  bong … “Very bad news, Master Andrew,” said the Time-A-Tron. “There are no owls on Earth sixty-five million years ago. At this time, the ancestors of humans are creeping around in the forests. Your little owl may eat them! Because of this tiny owl, it is possible that you may not exist!”

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. “That’s pretty weird. We’d better find that owl.”

  bong … “Good luck, little Dubbles,” said the Time-A-Tron. “Much depends on you.”

  Andrew and Judy stepped through the oval door to the outside.

  bong … The door closed behind them.

  The sun was baking hot and the air was sticky. The ground was damp and swampy.

  Andrew sniffed a spicy smell.

  “Pines!” said Andrew, looking up at the tall trees.

  “OUCH!” yelled Judy, slapping her neck. “I just got bitten by a monster mosquito!”

  meep … “Lotsa new stuff since we get stuck three hundred million years ago,” said Thudd. “Got pine trees and maple trees and oak trees. Got flowers now. Got lots more insects, too. Got mosquitoes that bite through dinosaur skin!”

  crick … crick … crick …

  Sounds were coming from the hill that the Time-A-Tron had rolled into. It was actually a pile of leaves and moss. Andrew went up to take a closer look.

  crick … crick … crick …

  A chunk of moss slid away. There was something smooth and white beneath it.

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “It’s an egg! A huge egg!”

  The egg trembled. A crack zigzagged across its top.

  “It’s hatching!” said Judy.

  crick … crack … crack …

  Now there was a hole in the top of the egg. From the hole poked a head as big as a puppy’s. But this head was scaly. Sharp little teeth hung down from the top of its mouth.

  Its bright black eyes looked up at Judy and blinked. It gripped the edge of the shell with the two teeny fingers at the ends of its tiny little arms.

  Judy slapped her hand over her mouth. “It’s a …”

  meep … “Tyrannosaurus baby,” said Thudd.

  “Beeper was right!” said Andrew. “This is what the DNA Detector was picking up!”

  meep … “Dinosaur baby called chick,” said Thudd. “Just like bird. Dinosaurs are great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of birds. When you see bird, you see little dinosaur!”

  crick … crick …

  The shell cracked apart and the tiny dinosaur took a few wobbly steps toward Judy.

  Judy backed away. “It’s not even as high as my knee and it wants to eat me!” she said.

  meep … “Maybe not want to eat you,” said Thudd. “Maybe chick think Oody is Tyrannosaurus mom.”

  Judy frowned. “Are you saying I lo
ok like a Tyrannosaurus?” she asked.

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” said Thudd. “When bird chick hatch out of egg, chick think first thing it see is mom. If baby duck see human first, baby duck think human is mom.”

  As Judy stepped back, the Tyrannosaurus chick followed.

  Suddenly it lurched at Judy, opened its mouth, and bit the leg of her pajamas with its sharp little teeth.

  “NO!” said Judy loudly. She tapped the Tyrannosaurus on its snout.

  Unnk! it grunted as it shredded Judy’s pajama leg.

  “He doesn’t think I’m Mom,” said Judy. “He thinks I’m lunch.”

  Just then, a yellow butterfly fluttered between Judy and the Tyrannosaurus. The baby dinosaur pawed the air trying to grab it. The butterfly darted off and the Tyrannosaurus followed it.

  Judy turned to Andrew. “You know, its mother could be back any minute to feed it.”

  meep … “Nobody know if Tyrannosaurus mom take care of Tyrannosaurus babies,” said Thudd.

  “Well,” said Andrew, “if there’s a little one here, there are big ones around somewhere. We’d better find that dino poop.”

  Andrew and Judy followed the Time-A-Tron’s bright green beam up a hill.

  “Wait a minute,” said Judy, stopping under a fern that towered over her head. She snapped off a bunch of fronds and handed half of them to Andrew.

  It wasn’t long before the beam—and their noses—led them to a huge pile of brown stuff.

  “Eeeeuuw!” said Judy.

  “Yuckers!” said Andrew.

  meep … “Gotta do it!” said Thudd.

  Andrew and Judy looked at each other. Then Andrew swished his fern fronds across the poop. Judy did the same. They stuck the ends of the fronds into the waistbands of their pajamas.

  Judy pinched her nose with her fingers.

  Andrew typed “Beeper Jones” into the DNA Detector and pressed the Find It button. He moved the detector slowly in a circle.