On the Reef 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

  Andrew Lost on the Reef

  AND COMING SOON!

  Andrew Lost in the Deep

  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.

  Andrew’s World

  1. Trapped!

  2. Um, Mermaid?

  3. Bad Things in Small Packages

  4. Clack! Clack! Clack!

  5. Clamming Up!

  6. Strong Mussels!

  7. Feeling Blue

  8. School Is Out!

  9. Attack of the Cones

  10. Clown to the Rescue!

  11. Bye-Bye, Bob!

  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. Some of his inventions have gotten him into trouble, like the time he shrunk himself, his cousin Judy, and his little silver robot Thudd smaller than the foot of a flea 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 meet some of the most dangerous creatures on earth!

  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. This hasn’t been an easy trip for Thudd. He’s a little worried about what’s next!

  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. Now it has a glass floor, a sharky fin on its roof, and a bathroom in the backseat. Andrew, Judy, and Thudd are pretty safe when they’re inside it. Too bad it’s trapped on the ocean floor!

  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?

  Now I know what it feels like to be a fish! thought Andrew Dubble.

  That was because Andrew’s underwater vehicle, the Water Bug, was tangled in a huge net at the bottom of the ocean.

  On the other side of the net were craggy mountains of coral and fish that looked like slices of a rainbow.

  “Cheese Louise!” said Andrew’s thirteen-year-old cousin, Judy. She was sitting next to Andrew in the passenger seat. “Maybe Soggy Bob set a trap to keep us from getting to the giant squids first!”

  Soggy Bob Sloggins wanted to capture a giant squid and turn it into giant squidwiches. Andrew and Judy were trying to stop him.

  “Maybe the Water Bug can rip through the net,” said Andrew. He pushed the gas pedal to the floor. VROOOOOOOM!

  The Water Bug used to be a Volkswagen Beetle. It had a glass floor, a sharky fin on its roof, and a bathroom in the backseat!

  The Water Bug whammed into the net, bounced off, and thumped into the ocean floor. Now the Water Bug’s paddle wheels were caught in the net!

  A herd of tiny yellow box-shaped fish fluttered up to the windshield. Their big blue eyes peered in curiously at Andrew and Judy.

  meep … “Try Octo-Tool,” came a squeaky voice. It was Andrew’s little silver robot and best friend, Thudd. He was sitting in a pocket of Andrew’s underwater suit.

  “Good idea, Thudd,” said Andrew.

  He pressed a black button on the dashboard.

  “Untangle Water Bug,” said Andrew into a microphone near the steering wheel.

  glurp … “Will try,” came the voice of the Water Bug.

  The hood of the Water Bug popped open and the gray tentacles of the Octo-Tool slithered out. They snatched at the net and tugged.

  But the Water Bug wasn’t coming free. Instead, the Octo-Tool’s tentacles got tangled in the net, too!

  glurp … “Alert! Alert!” said the Water Bug. “Octo-Tool trouble. Tentacles trapped!”

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. “Looks like we’ll have to get out and do it ourselves.”

  Judy groaned. “Cheese Louise! The last time we left the Water Bug, we got swallowed by a whale!”

  Andrew wasn’t listening to her. “While we’re out there,” he said, “we can get the lava boogers out of the Super-Sniffer.”

  On the hood of the Water Bug was a nose-like invention called the Super-Sniffer. It tracked things in the water the way a dog tracks things on land, by smell. Andrew and Judy needed the Super-Sniffer to find the giant squids. They had to get to them before Soggy Bob!

  But the Super-Sniffer was clogged up with lava boogers from an underwater volcano.

  “Look!” said Andrew. He pointed to a part of the net ahead of them. It was squirming. “Something else is caught in the net.”

  meep … “Lotsa animals get caught in old fishing net,” said Thudd. “Seals. Turtles. Dolphins.”

  Judy’s eyes got wide. “You mean a dolphin could be trapped in there?” she said.

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd.

  Judy sighed. “We’ve got to get out there right away and see what it is.”

  Judy and Andrew pulled their Bubble Duds helmets over their heads. Their Bubble Duds were bumpy green suits that let Andrew and Judy breathe underwater. There were headphones inside the helmets that let them talk to each other, too.

  Andrew made sure Thudd’s Bubble Bag was tightly closed. Thudd was never supposed to get wet! Then Andrew sealed Thudd inside a front pocket of his Bubble Duds.

  Andrew and Judy pressed buttons on the sides of their seats.

  FLAMP!

  Their seats flipped over, and they popped outside the Water Bug.

  Peering through the green water, Andrew saw that the net was drooping from strange tall shapes. They reminded him of the ribs of a dinosaur.

  Andrew and Judy swam over to the squirming bundle in the tangled net.

  Suddenly Judy stopped.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “What if it’s a shark?”

  “We’ll have to be careful,” said Andrew.

  The bundle was as big as a basketball player—a very fat basketball player. Little by little, Andrew and Judy tugged the net away from it.

  The first thing they saw was a flopping tail. It looked like a big gray Ping-Pong paddle!

  “That’s not a shark tail,” sa
id Judy.

  meep … “Manatee tail!” said Thudd. “Manatee called sea cow. Eat lotsa grass. Look!”

  Thudd’s face screen flashed a picture of an animal that looked like a lumpy beach toy.

  “Oh!” said Judy, pulling the net away from a flapping flipper. “A long time ago, sailors thought manatees were mermaids! Manatees are gentle and sweet!”

  “Maybe,” said Andrew. “But a manatee sure doesn’t look like a pretty girl with long hair and a fish tail.”

  He dragged the net away from a chubby face with tiny round eyes.

  “It looks more like a baked potato with flippers,” he said.

  meep … “Manatee mammal, like dolphin,” said Thudd. “Gotta breathe. Soon.”

  “Let’s hurry,” said Judy. “At the count of three, pull your end of the net, Andrew. One. Two. Three!”

  “Erggh!” said Judy.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew.

  Finally, the manatee was free. It nodded its pudgy head, paddled its flippers, and circled up into the water. But it couldn’t find a way through the net!

  “We have to find a hole in the net,” said Andrew.

  Judy shook her head. “We need to cut through it,” she said. “I’ll see what I can find in the Water Bug.”

  meep … “Gotta hurry!” said Thudd. “Not much time left for manatee!”

  Andrew swam along the net, searching desperately for a hole. Judy scuffled quickly toward the Water Bug, kicking up silvery puffs of sand with every step.

  Then Judy noticed the top of a brown bottle sticking out of the sand. She leaned over and pulled it up.

  Craaaack!

  It broke. Judy was holding half a bottle. She used a shell to dig up the other half, then carefully picked it up.

  “Andrew!” Judy yelled as she scurried back toward the manatee. She handed Andrew half of the broken bottle. The edges were jagged and sharp.

  “Be super careful,” she said, “but start chopping the net!”

  Judy and Andrew began hacking away. Soon they had cut a big hole.

  The manatee seemed to understand. It came up to the opening in the net and swam through.

  Andrew and Judy watched the chubby creature paddle toward the surface.

  “Yay!” said Andrew. “We saved the manatee!”

  Judy smiled.

  Andrew looked closely at the broken bottle in his hand. The glass was thick and wavy. There were bubbles in it. Seashells were stuck to it.

  “This doesn’t look like the glass bottles you get at the store,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Bottle old, old, old!” said Thudd. “Maybe two hundred years!”

  “How do you know?” asked Andrew.

  meep … “Bubbles in glass,” said Thudd. “Old bottle made by blowing hot glass. Glass blower stick hot glass lump at end of pipe, then blow glass like bubble gum.”

  Thudd pointed to the huge bony shapes that surrounded them. “This bottle come from old shipwreck,” he said.

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “Maybe it’s a pirate ship!”

  “Or maybe it’s an explorer’s ship!” said Judy.

  “Let’s see what we can find,” said Andrew.

  “First things first,” said Judy. “We need to get the Water Bug untangled and unclog the Super-Sniffer.”

  “I guess you’re right,” said Andrew.

  Andrew set to work untangling the net from the Octo-Tool tentacles. Judy cut the net away from the Water Bug’s paddle wheels.

  Then Andrew reached into a pocket and pulled out the Nose Pick, a fuzzy finger on a handle.

  “I’ll get those lava boogers,” he said.

  Andrew poked around inside the Super-Sniffer and dug out three rough black stones.

  “Got ’em!” Andrew announced. “Now the Super-Sniffer should be able to pick up the trail of the giant squid.”

  “We’d better leave fast,” said Judy. “Before Soggy Bob finds us again.”

  “But we can’t go without exploring the shipwreck,” said Andrew. “I think I see something!”

  Near one of the ship’s ribs, a ray of light glinted off the sand. Andrew scurried over and pulled up a small round case made of metal. It had a lid that was stuck shut. Andrew pried the lid open with a shell.

  “Neato mosquito!” he said. “Look what I found. It’s an old compass!”

  meep … “Purple button blinking!” squeaked Thudd. “Unkie Al coming!”

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

  Andrew and Judy’s Uncle Al was a top- secret scientist. He’d invented the Water Bug—and Thudd!

  “Hey, guys!” said the Uncle Al hologram.

  “So glad you’re back, Uncle Al!” said Andrew, slipping the compass into a pocket.

  “You’ve been gone a long time!” said Judy.

  meep … “Hiya, Unkie,” said Thudd.

  Uncle Al was smiling, but his eyebrows were scrunched together in a worried look.

  “Have you, um, gotten out of the whale yet?” he asked.

  When Uncle Al visited them by hologram, he could hear them but not see them.

  Judy rolled her eyes. “We sure did,” she said.

  “We, uh, got pooped out,” said Andrew.

  “That’s great,” said Uncle Al. His smile stretched across his face.

  “Great?” said Judy.

  Uncle Al shrugged. “It’s a lot better than not getting out at all,” he said. “But where are you now?”

  Andrew brushed away a purple-striped fish nibbling on the knee of his Bubble Duds.

  “The Water Bug got trapped in a fishing net,” he said. “We’re outside untangling it. It looks like we’re near a coral reef.”

  Something that looked like a baseball swam up to Andrew’s face mask. It had eight little tentacles.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “That’s weird!”

  “What is?” asked Uncle Al.

  “It’s a tiny little octopus,” said Andrew.

  “Look!” said Judy. “It’s got beautiful blue rings. They’re flickering like a neon sign!”

  “Good golly, Miss Molly!” yelled Uncle Al. “That’s a blue-ringed octopus! Move away from it. Now!”

  Andrew ducked.

  Judy crossed her arms. “What’s the big deal about a cute little octopus?” she asked.

  Uncle Al’s eyebrows wiggled up his forehead like fuzzy caterpillars.

  “Judy, that cute little octopus is deadly!” said Uncle Al.

  “Bizarre-o!” said Judy, backing away.

  “Where’s the octopus now?” asked Uncle Al.

  “It’s circling around us,” said Andrew, “like a fly looking for a place to land.”

  “Do you see any shells or small stones?” asked Uncle Al.

  Andrew picked up the lava boogers he had removed from the Super-Sniffer.

  “Got some,” said Andrew.

  “Throw them as far as you can,” said Uncle Al.

  Andrew threw them one at a time. The octopus followed!

  “The octopus is going after them!” said Andrew.

  “Great!” said Uncle Al. “The octopus probably thinks they’re clams or mussels. It likes to eat them.”

  Uncle Al rubbed his chin. “The good thing about the blue-ringed octopus is that it tells me where you are,” he said. “Those deadly little guys live around the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a coral reef near the eastern coast of Australia.”

  meep … “Great Barrier Reef more than one thousand miles long!” said Thudd. “Made by lotsa tiny coral animals. Great Barrier Reef biggest thing ever made by animal!”

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “We were inside the blue whale, the biggest animal that ever lived. Now we’re right next to the biggest thing that animals ever made!”

  Uncle Al nodded. “The Great Barrier Reef is a strange and beautiful place. It’s also home to the most dangerous animals on earth! Danger comes in small packages there. And sometimes you can’t see it at all.”
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  “Huh?” said Judy.

  “Well,” said Uncle Al, “blue-ringed octopuses are hard to see. They can be as small as Ping-Pong balls, and they don’t show their beautiful blue rings until they get mad! Then it’s too late.”

  “‘Too late’?” asked Judy.

  “Like all octopuses,” said Uncle Al, “our blue-ringed friends have sharp, parrot-like beaks. They could bite right through your Bubble Duds! The poison in their saliva can kill a person in minutes. So rule number one is never make a blue-ringed octopus mad.”

  “But I didn’t do anything to get it mad,” said Andrew.

  Uncle Al scratched his head. “That’s strange,” he said. “There are other creatures to watch out for too, like the—”

  meep … “Sea wasp jellyfish!” Thudd interrupted.

  “Ah, yes,” said Uncle Al. “If there was a contest for the most dangerous creature on earth, the sea wasp would win. It’s a small, box-shaped jellyfish with tentacles fifteen feet long. Its sting can kill a person in seconds!”

  meep … “Sea wasp clear like glass,” said Thudd. “Hard to see. But Bubble Duds protect Drewd and Oody from sea wasp.”

  “Yes,” said Uncle Al. “But if there’s even a tiny hole in your Bubble Duds, you could get stung. And please, please do not touch any—”

  kk … kkk … kkkkk came a scratchy sound through Andrew’s and Judy’s headphones.

  The Uncle Al hologram started spinning. It shrank down to a tiny dot and disappeared.

  “Well, I’ll be a bullfrog’s brother!” growled a voice through their headphones. “It’s those Dubble brats again!”

  “Oh no!” said Judy. “It’s Soggy Bob!”

  Andrew saw a silvery streak coming toward them. It was Soggy Bob’s underwater vehicle, the Crab-Mobile!

  “Get into the Water Bug, Judy!” said Andrew.

  Andrew and Judy swam to the underside of the Water Bug and pressed the buttons under the seats.

  FLAMP! The seats flipped out.

  Andrew and Judy strapped themselves in and pressed the buttons on the sides of the seats.