Under Water 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

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost in the Whale

  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. Bye-Bye, Hawai’i!

  2. Hello, Water Bug!

  3. Going Down!

  4. Shark Attack!

  5. Floorp!

  6. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Starfish

  7. Uh-oh!

  8. Getting Crabby

  9. Squids Ahoy!

  10. A Bad Time for Boogers …

  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.

  Today Andrew is showing off his Uncle Al’s newest invention, the Water Bug. It’s an underwater vehicle made to explore the deepest ocean. What could possibly go wrong?

  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…. Who knew she’d end up deep under the Pacific Ocean 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. Perhaps a voyage to the deepest ocean isn’t such a good idea….

  Uncle Al

  Andrew and Judy’s uncle is a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd! Uncle Al can’t stop working on his inventions, even when he’s on vacation. But after today, he may wish he hadn’t invented the Water Bug!

  The Water Bug

  It used to be an old Volkswagen Beetle until Uncle Al turned it into a submarine. Now it’s got a glass floor, a sharky fin on its roof, and a bathroom in the backseat. And it wants to take Andrew, Judy, and Thudd to the deepest part of the ocean!

  Soggy Bob Sloggins

  This bad guy of the sea is building Animal Universe, the biggest theme park in the world. But he doesn’t care about the animals. He’s just hung a sign above the huge aquarium in Squid World. It says SOGGY BOB’S GIANT SQUIDWICHES—COMING SOON! Will Andrew, Judy, and Thudd be able to stop Soggy Bob from turning giant squids into snacks?

  BYE-BYE, HAWAII!

  Andrew Dubble looked up through the tall palm trees.

  “This reminds me of when we were lost in the dog-hair forest on Harley’s nose!” he said.

  “Eeeuw!” said his cousin Judy. She gave a little shiver. “I don’t ever want to think about that! Do you have to be so irritating on our last morning in Hawai’i?”

  Judy tossed her frizzy hair and marched toward the ocean. She kicked up little fountains of sand with every step. Andrew followed her.

  meep … “Drewd and Oody gotta pack now!” came a squeaky voice from Andrew’s shirt pocket. It was Thudd, a little silver robot and Andrew’s best friend. “Plane leave in three hours!”

  “I guess you’re right,” sighed Judy. “But I just hate to leave.”

  Their trip to Hawai’i had been so much fun. They’d swum with dolphins, eaten seaweed salad, and taken an amazing helicopter ride over a volcano!

  Andrew and Judy had been surprised when Judy’s parents took them to Hawai’i after the mess they’d gotten into three weeks ago. That was when Andrew had accidentally shrunk himself, Judy, and Thudd to microscopic size with the Atom Sucker. They’d been snuffled into a dog’s nose, flushed down a toilet, carried off by a cockroach, and dragged into an anthill!

  Their parents had been a little upset. But mostly, they were proud of the kids for solving the big problem of being very little.

  “Before we finish packing,” said Andrew, “there’s something I’ve got to show you.”

  “What?” asked Judy.

  “It’s a surprise,” said Andrew.

  Judy looked at Andrew. Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of surprise?” she asked suspiciously. “The last time you surprised me, I ended up swimming in dog snot.”

  Andrew laughed. “It’s a surprise for Uncle Al. He has this new invention. But he’s been so busy taking us around Hawai’i, he hasn’t had time to finish it. So I’ve been getting up early every morning to work on it. After breakfast, I’m going to show Uncle Al what I did.”

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “You’ve been messing around with one of Uncle Al’s inventions? He’ll have a cow!”

  Andrew shook his head. “Uh-uh,” he said. “Come on. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “I’d better check this out before Uncle Al does,” she said.

  Andrew led the way down the beach. Huge blue waves were crashing onto the white sand.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “Look how high the waves are!”

  meep … “High tide!” said Thudd. “Moon pull big lump of water to this side of earth! See?”

  Thudd pointed to his face screen.

  They came to a quiet lagoon surrounded by palm trees. A few small boats were anchored there.

  Andrew walked up to a garage at the edge of the water. There was a small box in the middle of the door. Andrew talked into the box. “Good golly, Miss Molly,” he said.

  Chugga chugga chugga came a noise from inside the garage. The garage door rolled up slowly.

  Andrew stepped inside and clicked on the light.

  “Ta-da!”

  HELLO, WATER BUG!

  “It’s the Water Bug!” said Andrew.

  Judy’s eyes got wide. “Cheese Louise!” she said.

  A Volkswagen Beetle was parked on a ramp above the water. But this car wasn’t like one you would see on the street.

  This Beetle was a strange color that shifted from silver to red to blue. It had a sharky fin on its roof. It had fishy gills on its doors. And instead of rubber tires, the Water Bug had paddle wheels.

  “The first day we got to Hawai’i,” said Andrew, “Uncle Al let me help him with the Water Bug.”

  “How come it’s such a weird color?” asked Judy.

  “It’s got this coating called Protectum,” said Andrew. “It can change color to disguise itself. It can even light up in the dark.”

  Andrew pointed to a silver nose on the front of the Water Bug. It looked like a hood ornament.

  “This is the Super-Sniffer,” said Andrew. “It tracks things like dogs do, by smell. Uncle Al made it, and I put it on.”

  “Bizarr-o!” said Judy.

  Andrew opened the door on the passenger side. “Hop in,” he said.

  Judy folded her arms. “Are you kidding?” she said. “I’m not getting into anything you fooled around with.”

  “Jeepers creepers,” said Andrew
. “I just want to show you the inside.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “Oh, all right,” she said, plopping down in the passenger’s seat. Andrew shut Judy’s door, then walked around and got into the driver’s seat.

  The front seats of the Water Bug looked like the ones in a regular car. But the dashboard was crammed with dials and buttons. Next to the steering wheel was a microphone. There was a gas pedal and a brake on the floor—but the floor was made of glass!

  The back of the Water Bug had been divided into two spaces. On one side was a tiny kitchen with a little refrigerator, a microwave oven, and a sink with a cabinet underneath. On the other side was the smallest bathroom ever.

  Judy shook her head. “You could live in this thing,” she said.

  Andrew smiled. “And it even talks to you,” he said.

  Andrew reached for the biggest black dial on the dashboard and turned it till it clicked.

  glurp … “Welcome to the Water Bug!” said a mechanical voice. “Would you like to take a tour of the beach? Visit a coral reef? Explore the deepest ocean? Search for giant squids?”

  “Um, nothing right now, thanks,” said Andrew. He tried to turn the dial farther.

  KRACK!

  The dial fell onto the floor!

  glurp … “Something is wrong with my destination dial,” said the Water Bug. “Please repeat your choice.”

  “No ocean!” said Andrew. “No squids!”

  glurp … “Thank you!” said the Water Bug. “You have chosen to explore the deepest ocean. To search for giant squids, please turn on the Super-Sniffer.”

  VROOOM!

  The Water Bug’s engine came to life!

  Chugga chugga chugga …

  The ramp tilted down, the door that led to the ocean rolled up, and the Water Bug slid into the water!

  The paddle wheels started spinning, splashing water onto the windows. The Water Bug zoomed out of the garage and into the lagoon!

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew.

  “Andrew!” yelled Judy. “We’ve got to go back!”

  Andrew turned the steering wheel, but the Water Bug kept going straight.

  “Um, I’m not sure I can go back,” said Andrew.

  “WHAT?” yelled Judy.

  “Well, uh, when the destination dial got loose, I think the Water Bug got stuck on autopilot. It’s steering itself now.”

  Judy picked the dial up off the floor and waved it in front of Andrew’s nose.

  “This dial isn’t loose, bug-brain,” she said. “You broke it off!”

  The Water Bug zipped out of the peaceful blue lagoon into the choppy waves of the ocean.

  Andrew could see the beach in his rearview mirror. The garage and the palm trees were getting smaller and smaller.

  “ANDREW!” yelled Judy. “Get this thing back to the garage! Now!”

  Andrew looked over the buttons on the dashboard and pressed a yellow one.

  “I think Uncle Al said something about this one,” he said.

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” squeaked Thudd.

  But it was too late.

  Sluuurp! came a sucking sound. The doors and windows sealed shut. The Water Bug tilted down and dove under the waves!

  GOING DOWN!

  “Yikes!” yelled Judy.

  “Yowzers!” yelled Andrew.

  “Yeep!” squeaked Thudd.

  The Water Bug sped down and down. Slanted beams of sunlight lit up the blue-green world below.

  A dial on the dashboard measured how deep they were. The meter said ten feet, then twenty feet, then thirty feet.

  Judy shook her head. “Well, smarty-pants,” she said. “You’ve gotten us into giant trouble again! The air in here won’t last long.”

  meep … “Water Bug got gills on doors,” said Thudd. “Pull oxygen from water same way fish do. Lotsa oxygen molecules in water.”

  “Good!” said Judy. “At least well be breathing when some gross sea monster turns us into a snack. Maybe it will be one of those giant squids! What are those things anyway?”

  meep … “Giant squid strange, strange, strange!” said Thudd. “Cousin of octopus. Long as two school buses! Got eyes the size of dinner plates! No human ever seen giant squid alive. Look!”

  Thudd pointed to his face screen.

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “It looks kind of interesting.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “Oh brother!” she said. “Come on, guys. Let’s figure out some way to get back. Quick!”

  Andrew studied the buttons and dials. “Hmmm …,” he said.

  Judy groaned. “‘Hmmm’ does not sound like someone who knows what he’s doing.”

  meep … “Thudd call Uncle Al,” said Thudd.

  There were three rows of buttons on Thudd’s chest. They all glowed green except for the big purple button in the middle. This was the one Thudd used to send emergency messages to Uncle Al.

  Thudd pressed the big purple button. It blinked three times.

  Colors flashed beneath the glass floor. Judy leaned down to see.

  “Look at this!” she said.

  Below the Water Bug swam schools of fish. Their colors weren’t like the colors on land. They glowed like jewels. Some fish were such a bright blue, they looked like they had light bulbs inside them.

  Hundreds of lemon yellow fish shaped like dinner plates fluttered by. They moved together so perfectly they seemed to be part of one big animal. There were orange fish with purple tiger stripes, green fish speckled with neon blue spots, and fish the color of yellow and orange flames.

  Thousands of finger-sized silver fish whirled around and around and made a huge ball shape.

  meep … “Little fish swim together, look like one big fish,” said Thudd. “Try to fool big fish looking for little fish.”

  “The water is green here,” said Andrew. “It was blue when we were near the shore.”

  meep… “Water green cuz lotsa tiny green plants floating here,” said Thudd. “Lotsa tiny animals, too. Floating stuff called plankton. Green water mean lotsa plankton. Lotsa food for fish!”

  Judy pointed to a fish that looked like it was made from black and orange puzzle pieces. “That’s the official state fish of Hawai’i,” she said. “It’s called the humu humu nuku nuku apu ah ah!”

  Andrew laughed. “I think they picked it because everybody likes to say ‘humu humu nuku nuku apu ah ah.’”

  Suddenly the big 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, a purple hologram of Uncle Al appeared on the dashboard.

  “Hey there!” said the Uncle Al hologram. “Where are you guys?”

  With his hologram, Uncle Al could hear them but not see them.

  “Um, we’re in the water,” said Andrew.

  Uncle Al shook his head. “I know you love the ocean,” he said. “But we have to have breakfast and leave for the airport. It’s not time for swimming.”

  “We’re not swimming!” said Judy. “We’re trapped in the Water Bug in the middle of the ocean!”

  Uncle Al’s bushy eyebrows went way up. “Elvis Presley on an English muffin!” he said. “Tell me how this happened!”

  Andrew told Uncle Al how he’d been getting up early to finish the Water Bug.

  “Thank you, Andrew,” said Uncle Al, “but—”

  Andrew interrupted. “And I was just showing it to Judy when the destination dial, um, broke off.”

  “Good golly, Miss Molly!” said Uncle Al. “The Water Bug must be on autopilot! Where did it say it was going?”

  “The deepest ocean,” said Andrew.

  “How can we get back to the beach?” asked Judy.

  “No problem!” said Uncle Al. “As long as the blue wire on the destination dial hasn’t broken off. Andrew, do you see the blue wire on the bottom of the dial?”

  Andrew picked the dial up off the floor and turned it over. There was no wire at all!

&n
bsp; SHARK ATTACK!

  “Um, there’s no blue wire under the destination dial,” said Andrew.

  Uncle Al rubbed his chin. “Problems always have more than one solution,” he said. “I’ll figure out another way to fix the destination dial.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “Can’t you just use sonar or radar or something to find us?”

  “Did you notice the unusual color of the Water Bug?” asked Uncle Al.

  “Yup,” said Judy. “Andrew said it was some kind of disguise coating.”

  “It is,” said Uncle Al. “The Protectum coating helps to hide the Water Bug from everyone—including me!”

  “Bummer!” said Judy. “But why does the Water Bug have to be hidden?”

  Uncle Al was quiet for a moment. “Have you guys ever heard of Soggy Bob Sloggins?” he asked.

  “Uh-uh,” said Andrew.

  “Nope,” said Judy.

  “Soggy Bob Sloggins has been stealing animals from all over the world,” said Uncle Al. “Last year, he smuggled a dozen platypuses out of Australia in his suitcases. He packed a pair of pandas out of China in his trunks. The International Police caught him sneaking out of India with a pygmy elephant in a pickup truck.”

  “Why does he want all those animals?” asked Andrew.

  “Soggy Bob is building Animal Universe,” said Uncle Al, “the biggest theme park ever. But he doesn’t care about the animals. He told a reporter that if an animal cost too much to care for, he’d stuff it!”

  “Oh no!” said Judy.

  “I’ve been working with the International Police,” said Uncle Al. “We’ve heard that Soggy Bob wants to find and capture giant squids! He’s got a huge tank ready. The sign above it says ‘Soggy Bob’s Giant Squidwiches—Coming Soon!’”

  “We can’t let him do it!” said Judy.

  “We’ve got to protect them!” said Andrew.