Space Adventure Books: Free Esampler

SPACE
ADVENTURE
BOOKS
with sneak peeks from:
Ambassador by William Alexander

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs
Outer Space by Ken Jennings
The Incredible Space Raiders
from Space! by Wesley King
AstrotwinsProject Blastoff
by Mark Kelly
G
alactic Hot Dogs: Cosmoes
Wiener Getaway by Max Brallier
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ambassador by William Alexander
Space Case by Stuart Gibbs
Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides:
Outer Space by Ken Jennings
The Incredible Space Raiders from Space!

by Wesley King
AstrotwinsProject Blastoff by Mark Kelly
Galactic Hot Dogs: Cosmoes Wiener Getaway
by Max Brallier
Ambassador
By William Alexander
About Ambassador
Gabe Fuentes is reading under the covers
one summer night when he is interrupted
by a creature who looks like a purple sock
puppet. The sock puppet introduces himself
as the Envoy and asks if Gabe wants to be
Earths ambassador to the galaxy. What
sane eleven-year-old could refuse?
Some ingenious tinkering with the washing
machine sends Gabes entangled self out to the center of the galaxy. There he
finds that Earth is in the path of a destructive alien forceand Gabe himself is the
target of an assassination plot. Exactly who wants him out of the way? And why?
Back home, Gabe discovers that his undocumented parents are in danger of being
deported. Can Gabe survive long enough to solve two sets of alien problems? He
runs for his life, through Minneapolis and outer space, in this fast-paced adventure
from a National Book Award-winning author.
About the author

William Alexander won the National Book Award for his debut novel, Goblin
Secretspraised by Kirkus Reviews as gripping and tantalizing in a starred review
and won an Earphones Award for his narration of the audiobook. His second novel,
Ghoulish Song, was called humorous, poignant, and convincing by Kirkus Reviews.
He studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College and English at the University
of Vermont and currently lives, writes, and teaches in Minneapolis. Visit him at
WillAlex.net and GoblinSecrets.com.
PART ONE
SELECTED
1
The Envoy tossed itself at the world.
An ambassadors business had left it stranded on the
moon for years and decades. During all that time it tried
to patch together a return capsule from Soviet equipment abandoned on the surface. But this had never actually worked, and now it needed to hurry, so it gave up on
the capsule and built a cannon instead. Then the Envoy
aimed itself and its cannon at the world.
This was not the tricky part.
Moving through vacuum for several days was not
the tricky part either. The Envoy had no ship, no craft,
no transportation. It had only itself: the spherical, purple
transparency of its own substance. It clenched its outer
layers, becoming glass-like to bounce radiation away
and keep itself from dehydrating. But it remained clear
enough to let light in. All of it was sensitive to light. It
* 3 *
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
was its own big, purple eyeball. The Envoy watched the
approaching planet with all of itself, and enjoyed the
view.
The nightside of the globe grew large ahead. Constel
lations of bright and artificial light stretched out across
landmasses. The Envoy expected to land in Russia again,
or possibly in China, but North America stretched out
below it.
The first hints of atmosphere scraped against its skin.
The Envoy winced. This was going to hurt. This would
be the tricky part.
The Envoy became a blind eye, opaque, closing itself
and all its senses. The view was about to become too searingly bright to appreciate. Air turned to plasma against
the friction of the Envoys passage.
It shed several layers of scorched self. Then it slowed
down by expanding, thinning its substance against air
currents like the stretched skin of a flying squirrel or a
flying fish or a flying squid. It became its own parachute
though it didnt slow down nearly as much as a real parachute would have. The Envoy tumbled into a rough glide.
It became transparent again, letting light pass through it,
trying to see where it was going and what it was falling
toward. It failed to see very much.
The Envoy smacked into a small pond in an urban
* 4 *
AMBASSADOR
park. The noise and splash startled several geese, ducks,

catfish, and turtles.
It sank into the mud and muck at the very bottom
and felt itself gradually cool, losing the sting of impact.
It needed time to collect itselfthough not literally, for
which it was grateful. Its substance remained in one
single piece.
A few curious fish tried to nibble the Envoy. It tried
to ignore them. Then it made a limb and shoed them
away. Finally it stretched out and relearned how to swim.
It had been a long time since the Envoy had lived in
an aquatic environment, but now it remembered how to
wave and ripple like a manta ray. It swam up to the surface of the pond. There it carefully observed the shore,
the surrounding park, and the playgrounds.
The Envoy spent many days floating and recovering
from planetfall before it noticed Gabriel Sandro Fuentes.
* 5 *
2
Gabe sat on a swing and watched his toddler siblings,
Andrs and Noemi.
Noemi sat underneath a plastic slide and poured
handfuls of sand over her sandals. Andrs, her twin
brother, climbed up and down the stairs that led to the
slide. He didnt actually like the slide itself, but he loved
going up and down the stairs. They both seemed focused
and content with what they were doing.
Gabe kept a close eye on them anyway.
The chains of his swing creaked like door hinges as he
swayed back and forth. His friend Frankie sat in the other
swing and complained. Gabe was dark and shorter than his
average peer, while Frankie was pale, tall, and spindly thin.
Why do you have to babysit today? Frankie asked.
Its Thursday, Gabe answered, as though that explained
everything.
* 6 *
AMBASSADOR
So? said Frankie.

So Mom tutors on Thursdays. I cant remember what
subject shes got today. Might be Spanish. Might be
math. I hope it isnt standardized test prep. She hates test
prep. And my sister has a restaurant shift, and then Dad
has his own shift later. Hes making dinner now. So that
leaves me to watch the twins.
Huh, said Frankiethe uncomprehending grunt of
an only child who has never had to watch anyone else. I
wish I could come over for dinner. Id rather have your
dads cooking than eat with my mom while she glares
at me.
You cant, though, said Gabe. Were supposed to be
avoiding each other right now.
Yeah, Frankie said sadly.
The other kids playing nearby were either very much
younger or very much older than Gabe and Frankie. Two
older boys played basketball in a court adjacent to the
playground. They shouted and cursed each other out. It
sounded angry. It sounded vicious. Gabe glanced their
way whenever an especially sharp curse cut the air. But it
didnt look like they were fighting. Not really. So it was
probably just aggressive conversation. The cursing might
have been part of their game.
Gabe looked back at the twins. Noemi still sat under
* 7 *
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
the slide with her handfuls of sand. Andrs kept climbing the stairs.
My mom is pretty mad, said Frankie. Have you
noticed how she seems to get taller whenever she gets mad?
Gabe nodded without looking away from the twins.
He had noticed. Frankies mom turned into a towering
statue of wrathful ice whenever she got mad.
Shes sending me to live with my dad for the rest of
the summer, Frankie went on. In California.
That got Gabes attention. Really?
Really, said Frankie. She puts me on a plane tonight.
Tonight? This was a terrible thing. Frankie was
Gabes only friend within walking distance. They usually
spent whole summers togetherexcept for the summers
Frankie spent with his dad. And this summer wasnt supposed to be one of those. So we dont have time to talk
her out of it? He tried to think of apologies and promises that might somehow appease Frankies mom.
Dont try to talk her out of it, said Frankie. Really.
Dont. It wont work. And at least in California I wont
have to see her glare at me for a while. He kicked the
sand under his swing with one foot. I think we got the
fuel mix wrong.
I think we shouldnt have used a metal pipe, Gabe
told him. Model rockets are usually paper and plastic.
* 8 *
AMBASSADOR
Lightweight. They cause less damage when they hit

things. And theyre less likely to just fall over, spin in
place, and spew flames.
But the pipe looked like it wanted to be a rocket, just
sitting there in the garage, Frankie said. It was all shiny.
Like it dreamed of becoming a rocket rather than a piece
of plumbing. Anyway, thanks for saying it was your idea.
Youre welcome, said Gabe.
It kind of was your idea, said Frankie.
No, it wasnt, said Gabe. Did any of the lawn furniture survive?
None of it, said Frankie, his voice morose.
Is lawn furniture expensive? Gabe asked, a bit worried.
Probably, said Frankie. I think she plans to take it
out of us in leaf-raking and snow-shoveling later. But
right now she doesnt want to see either of us, so shes
banishing me to California. Shell probably just ignore
you if she sees you around. Were your parents mad?
Sort of, said Gabe. Dad tried to be, but he kept
laughing. Mom was angrier, but mostly she was just
relieved we didnt die.
He watched Noemi sift sand. Then he looked for
Andrs and noticed that Andrs was no longer climbing
stairs.
Gabe couldnt see him. He scanned the various small
* 9 *
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
children, looking for a familiar one. He stood up from

his swing, still searching, ready to run but not yet sure
which direction to run in.
Noemi still sat under the slide.
Andrs didnt seem to be anywhere.
Then Gabe found him, finally. The toddler had left
the playground, stepped onto the grass, and approached a
very old woman sitting on a park bench. The old woman
glared at the playground. She watched the children play
as though planning to eat them all.
Andrs toddled right up to her as if he meant to offer
himself as a sacrificial meal to spare the other kids. He
stood and stared at the old woman. She stared right back
at him. Neither moved or spoke until Gabe swooped in,
scooped him up, and gave a quick apology.
The old lady turned her mighty glare on Gabe. He
flinched, retreated to the sandy playground, and put
Andrs down.
The toddler immediately headed for a trio of girls
building sand castles with shovels and buckets. He
snatched away one of their shovels when he got there.
Hey! the shovel-owner shouted. She seemed old
enough to have a sense of ownership, but too young
to realize that Andrs didnt. Gabe moved to intercept.
Then several things happened very quickly.
* 10 *
AMBASSADOR
Gabe picked up Andrs and plucked the plastic shovel

from his hand.
Andrs let out an indignant squawk.
The older boys on the basketball court gave a warning
shout.
Their ball flew away from the court in a high arc
headed for the middle of the sand castles.
Before it could land and destroy all the sandy buildings in its path, Gabe kicked the ball like a soccer goalie.
It sailed away from the kids, away from the castles, and
back toward the basketball court. He did this while still
holding the squawking Andrs. Then he took a breath
and smiled, proud of his reflexes and also a little surprised.
One of the older boys cursed Gabe out for kicking their
ballone shouldnt ever kick a basketball, apparently
and the other grinned and shouted thanks. Gabe waved
to both of them as though they had said the same thing,
and maybe they had.
He returned the plastic shovel to the castle-building
girl, who took it as her rightful due and went back to
work. Then Gabe put Andrs down and checked to
make sure that Noemi was still under the slide.
She wasnt. She was running away from the playground, downhill and toward the duck pond. She laughed
the shrieking laugh of forbidden freedom.
* 11 *
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
Your baby sisters making a break for it, Frankie said,

helpfully pointing at Noemi but not moving otherwise.
Gabe hoisted Andrs back up again, dropped him
into an infant swing to contain him, and sprinted after
his sister.
He caught her at the very edge of the pond.
Splashy! she yelled while Gabe marched her back
up the hill. Splashy, splashy! Ducks! Duuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuucks! Meow!
Ducks say quack, Gabe told her.
Meeeeeoooooow!
They got back to Andrs, who was trapped in his
swing and crying. That set off Noemi, so Gabe pushed
them both in the swings for a bit until they cheered up.
That was smooth, said Frankie, who hadnt budged
from his own swing the whole time. That was ninja-like.
Thanks, said Gabe. He wanted to point out that
Frankie could have helped rather than just sitting there
and watching, but he didnt bother.
Id still rather be a pirate than a ninja, said Frankie.
They argued about that for a while. It was an old
argument between them. Gabe would rather be quiet
and precise than boisterous, loud, and sloppy. He preferred throwing stars to cannon fire. But Frankie liked
to be loud.
* 12 *
AMBASSADOR
Gabe strapped the twins into their double stroller

once they were both laughing and happy. Each seat had
a five-point harness, as though the stroller were secretly a
space capsule.
Time to go home, he said. He didnt want to go. The
afternoon had suddenly become the very end of Gabe
and Frankies shared summer. But it was still time.
I guess so, said Frankie.
Youll have fun in California, said Gabe, trying to put
the best spin on iteven though he was still disappointed
and grumpy about the whole thing. That rocket-pipe
had been a dumb idea all around, but Gabe had gone
along, taken the blame for it afterward, and now faced
a friendless summer. He shouldnt have let Frankie light
that fuse.
Sure, said Frankie without enthusiasm. Ill have fun.
They argued about Batman and Zorro while they
walked home. Lately they had taken to watching old
Batman cartoons and older Zorro cartoons online at
Frankies house. Both cartoon heroes were rich gentlemen who wore masks, hid in caves, and named themselves after stealthy animalsbut otherwise they were
completely different.
So which one would win in a fight? Frankie wanted
to know.
* 13 *
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
They wouldnt ever get into a fight, said Gabe. He

said it quietly, as a known and simple fact.
But what if they did? Frankie asked, his voice very
much louder.
They wouldnt fight, Gabe repeated. It wouldnt
happen. It couldnt happen.
What if they fought by mistake? Frankie pressed
him. Maybe one of them was framed, or hypnotized, or
possessed by evil alien ghosts, or something like that?
Zorro would still find a way to avoid it, said Gabe.
Batman would come at him all brooding and serious,
and Zorro would just say something charming, or else
make him laugh, and then the fight would be over before
it even started because you cant crack up laughing and
still be Batman. Zorro would make a game out of it.
If Batman got possessed by aliens, then the aliens
wouldnt care about Zorros sense of humor, Frankie
pointed out. None of Zorros jokes would make sense
to aliens.
You cant say for sure what would make sense to
aliens, said Gabe. And Zorro would parry anything
Batman threw at him. Hed duck and weave and snap
batarangs out of the air with his whip. Also, batarang is a
dumb word. How could anyone who carries a belt full of
batarangs take themselves so seriously?
* 14 *
AMBASSADOR
Frankies voice got even louder. I cant hear you over

the sound of how wrong you are. Its deafening. Your
wrongness.
They stopped at a street corner. Gabe needed to turn
left to get home. Frankies place was off to the right.
Dont burn anything at your dads, Gabe told him.
Youll probably start a whole forest fire out there. If I
turn on the news and all of Californias burning, Ill
know its your fault.
Dont have fun without me, said Frankie. No fun.
I probably wont, said Gabe.
They did their secret handshake, which was complicated. Then both of them went home.
The Envoy moved low to the ground between hedges
and trees, still dripping with pond water. Gabe didnt
notice it following him.
* 15 *
Space Case
By Stuart Gibbs
About Space Case

Like his fellow lunarnautsotherwise known
as Mooniesliving on Moon Base Alpha,
twelve-year-old Dashiell Gibson is famous
the world over for being one of the first
humans to live on the moon.
And hes bored out of his mind. Kids arent
allowed on the lunar surface, meaning theyre
trapped inside the tiny moon base with next
to nothing to occupy their timeand the only other kid Dashs age spends all his
time hooked into virtual reality games.
Then Moon Base Alphas top scientist turns up dead. Dash senses theres foul
play afoot, but no one believes him. Everyone agrees Dr. Holtz went onto the lunar
surface without his helmet properly affixed, simple as that. But Dr. Holtz was on the
verge of an important new discovery, Dash finds out, and its a secret that could
change everything for the Mooniesa secret someone just might kill to keep...
About the author

Stuart Gibbs is the author of Belly Up, Poached, Spy School, Spy Camp, and Evil
Spy School, and has also written several screenplays, including American Summer
and Parental Guidance. He lives in Los Angeles.
Moon Base Alpha Resident Directory
Upper floor:
Residence 1 (base commanders quarters and office)
Nina Stack, moon-base commander
Residence 2
Harris-Gibson residence
Dr. Rose Harris, lunar geologist
Dr. Stephen Gibson, mining specialist
Dashiell Gibson (12)
Violet Gibson (6)
Residence 3
Dr. Maxwell Howard, lunar-engineering specialist
Kira Howard (12)
(Note: The Howards are not due to arrive until Mission 6. This
residence will remain empty until then.)
Residence 4
Brahmaputra-Marquez residence
Dr. Ilina Brahmaputra-Marquez, astrophysicist
Dr. Timothy Marquez, psychiatrist
4P Space Case int.indd 11
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Cesar Marquez (16)

Rodrigo Marquez (13)
Inez Marquez (7)
Tourist Suite
currently occupied by the Sjoberg family:
Lars Sjoberg, industrialist
Sonja Sjoberg, his wife
Patton Sjoberg (16)
Lily Sjoberg (16)
Residence 5 reserved for temporary base residents (female)
Residence 6 reserved for temporary base residents (male)
Residence 7
Dr. Ronald Holtz, base physician
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Lower floor:
Residence 8
Garth Grisan, maintenance specialist
Residence 9
Dr. Wilbur Janke, astrobiologist
Residence 10
Dr. Daphne Merritt, base roboticist
Residence 11
Dr. Chang Kowalski, geochemist
Residence 12
Goldstein-Iwanyi residence
Dr. Shari Goldstein, lunar-agriculture specialist
Dr. Mfuzi Iwanyi, astronomer
Kamoze Iwanyi (7)
Residence 13
Kim-Alvarez residence
Dr. Jennifer Kim, seismic geologist
Dr. Shenzu Alvarez, water-extraction specialist
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 6. This residence will remain
empty until then.)
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Residence 14
Dr. Viktor Balnikov, astrophysicist
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 6. This residence will remain
empty until then.)
Residence 15
Chen-Patucket residence
Dr. Jasmine Chen, senior engineering coordinator for
Moon Base Beta
Dr. Seth Patucket, astrobiologist
Holly Patucket (13)
(Note: Not due to arrive until Mission 8. This residence will be used
as housing for temporary base workers until then.)
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Excerpt from The Official Residents Guide to Moon Base Alpha,

2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration:
WELCOME TO MOON BASE ALPHA!

Congratulations on your selection as a resident of the first
permanent extraterrestrial human habitat! To ease your transition from earth, Moon Base Alpha (referred to from here
on as MBA) has been designed to feel as comfortable and
familiar as any residence on our home planet. Our engineers
and designers have spared no expense to provide all MBA
residentsor lunarnautswith everything they need for a
relaxing, pleasurable existence.
However, life on the moon will not be without challenges.
There are obviously many differences between this residence
and one on earthmany of which you may be pleasantly surprised by! To that end, please take the necessary time to read
this helpful, informative manual in its entirety, as it will likely
answer any questions you have about your new home (and
perhaps a few questions you hadnt even thought to ask yet)!
Once again, congratulations on your selection. Welcome to
the moon. Enjoy your new home!
6/23/14 1:46 PM
EVIL PLUMBING
Earth year 2041

Lunar day 188
Smack in the middle of the night
Lets get something straight, right off the bat:

Everything the movies have ever taught you about space
travel is garbage.
Giant spacecraft that are as comfortable as floating cruise
ships? Complete fantasy. Warp-speed travel? Never going
to happen. Holodecks? Terraforming? Beaming up? Dont
count on any of it.
Life in outer space sucks. Trust me, I know.
My name is Dashiell Gibson. Im twelve years old and I
live on the moon.
SPACE CASE 5
6/23/14 1:46 PM
On Moon Base Alpha, to be exact.

You know this, of course. Everyone on earth knows this,
unless theyve been living in the Amazon rain forest for the
last few years, and since theres barely anything left of the
Amazon rain forest, Im guessing thats unlikely.
Moon Base Alphaalong with everyone who lives on
ithas been the subject of an absolutely staggering amount
of hype: The first human outpost in space! The first people
to live on a celestial body besides earth! A glorious first step
in mankinds ultimate colonization of the galaxy!
The government fed my family all that baloney as well,
back when they recruited my parents. And I admit, I completely fell for it. We all did. The recruiters made everything
sound so amazing: Moon Base Alpha would have all the
comforts of earthand more. Wed go down in history as
one of the first families to live in space. Wed be the newest
breed of pioneers, pushing the limits of human achievement.
Like I said: garbage.
Living in Moon Base Alpha is like living in a giant tin
can built by government contractors. Its as comfortable as
an oil refinery. You cant go outside, the food is horrible, its
always coldand the toilets might as well be medieval torture devices.
Ever notice how, in all the science-fiction movies and TV
shows youve ever seenStar Wars and Battlestar Galactica
6 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
and all 142 versions of Star Trekno one ever goes to the
bathroom? Thats not because, in the future, everyone has
figured out how to metabolize their own feces. Its because
going to the bathroom in space is a complete pain in the
butt. Literally.
At least the moon-base toilet is better than the one on
the spaceship we took here. In zero gravity, you have to take
extreme precautions to ensure that whatever comes out of
your body doesnt fly up into your face. (Theres an old saying in zero-g space travel: If you ever see a piece of chocolate
floating around the cabin, dont eat it. Its probably not chocolate.) However, using the toilet on Moon Base Alpha is no
picnic. If Id known how exceptionally complicated and disgusting it would be, I never would have agreed to leave earth.
It was because of one of those evil toilets that I wound
up involved in far more trouble and danger than I ever could
have imagined.
Now, before you get the idea that Im some whiny, ungrateful
kid who just likes to complain and wouldnt be happy anywhere . . . Im not. Before my family made the awful decision
to come live on the moon, I was happy as any kid youve ever
met. Happier, maybe. We lived on the Big Island of Hawaii,
which was awesome. Mom worked at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which runs the telescopes on the peak of Mauna Kea.
SPACE CASE 7
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Although the scopes are thirteen thousand feet up, theyre

managed remotely from the town of Waimea, which meant
we could live down by the beach. So my childhood was pretty
idyllic. I had lots of friends. I did well in school and played on
every sports team. I surfed every weekendand when I did,
there were usually dolphins in the waves with me.
Then the government came calling.
See, my parents have a very unique set of skills. Mom
is a lunar geologist who wrote some landmark papers about
the moon and the consistency of its mantle and core. Dad
is a mining engineer with a specialty in environmentally
sound mineral extraction. And one of the major reasons
for the moon base is to explore the possibility of mining
precious metals there.
Separately, Mom and Dad would each have been solid
candidates for Moon Base Alpha. Together, they were an
impossible combination to beat. Space is limited on the
moon. With them, NASA got two scientists without having
to send two separate families. So they wanted my folks badly.
We got the full-court press. Politicians called us. The chairman
of NASA came to visit. We were all flown to Washington, DC,
first class for lunch with the vice president. And every last one
of them lied to our faces about how great it would be to live
on the moon.
They made it sound like MBA was going to be incredible.
8 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Like our lives there would be nonstop thrills and amazement.

Imagine hearing that youve just won a free three-year stay in
the most luxurious hotel in the most insane location imaginable. Oh, and you get to be famous, too. Not flash-in-the-pan,
one-hit-wonder, reality-TV famous. Have-kids-learn-aboutyou-in-school-a-hundred-years-from-now famous. We were
going to be lumped in with the greatest explorers of all time,
maybe even score our own chapter in the history books:
Columbus. Magellan. Neil Armstrong. The Harris-Gibson
Family of Moon Base Alpha.
It all sounded too good to pass up. So we said yes.
We spent the next year trainingbut then, you know
that. All the families who were headed for MBA became
celebrities right off the bat. (NASA tried to get everyone to
refer to us as lunarnauts, but the public ended up calling us
Moonies instead.) The whole world watched all our preparations for life on the moon, our multiple aborted launch
attempts, and finally our successful blastoff into space and
our triumphant arrival at our new home. And now that were
on the moon, millions of people are still following our lives
via webcams and ComLinks and beam-feeds.
And yet, despite all that, you earthlings never get to see
the whole story. Instead you see the edited and sanitized
version. Theres too much at stake to allow anything else
through. We Moonies are barred from broadcasting, texting,
SPACE CASE 9
6/23/14 1:46 PM
or transmitting anything to the public that might be detrimental to the success of Moon Base Alpha. (And if we try,
NASA has censors wholl delete it before it goes public.) We
cant complain about the toilets or the food or the malfunctioning equipment. We cant mention that anything has ever
gone wrong. We have to constantly present a positive face to
the public, even when there is nothing to be positive about.
Which is why no one on earth has ever heard about the
murder.
I only got involved because I had to use the space toilet at
two fifteen in the morning. On the moon this is a major
endeavor, because we dont have a toilet in our private living
quarters. (Something else the government neglected to mention when talking up the moon base.) Space toilets cost more
than thirty million bucks a piece. So instead of springing for
one for each family, the moon-base designers only bought six
and placed them all in the communal bathrooms, three for
the girls and three for the guys.
The living quarters are all in one section of the base, but
the geniuses who designed MBA put the bathrooms on the
opposite side. The logical explanation for this was that the
bathrooms would be closer to the work and dining areas,
where wein theorywould spend most of our awake time.
Unfortunately, this means that when the urge to purge strikes
10 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
in the middle of the night, you have to get dressed, leave your
quarters, cross the base, use the complicated toilet, and then
head back again. It can take fifteen minutesor more if the
toilet jams, which happens far more often than anyone predicted. Everyone at MBA loathes the entire process.
Sometimes I can resist the call of nature and go back to
sleep, but on that night I knew it was useless. Id had chicken
parmigiana for dinner. Sort of. Like all our meals, it was a
shrink-wrapped block of precooked food that had been irradiated, thermostabilized, dehydrated, and compacted, which
meant it didnt taste anything like chicken parm back home.
In fairness, a few space foods are actually pretty good
shrimp cocktail and chocolate pudding, for examplebut
for the most part they all taste like wet sawdust. Some of the
other moon kids and I once did a blind taste test of three
theoretically different space foods: beef stroganoff, blueberry
pancakes, and chicken tikka masala. No one was able to tell
the difference.
While almost everything tastes the same going in,
though, it all has drastically different effects on my digestive
tract. Chicken parm is the worst. It had sent me racing to
the john in the middle of the night twice before, so I had
avoided it like the plague ever since. But on that night, I
screwed up.
All the meals dont merely taste alike. They also look
SPACE CASE 11
6/23/14 1:46 PM
alike. Once youve irradiated, thermostabilized, dehydrated,

and compacted a meal, it doesnt look like food anymore; it
looks like toy blocks. For this reason, the meals all have identification stickers to tell them apart, but the stickers often
come off. (And sometimes things just get labeled wrong.) I
had rehydrated what I thought was beef teriyaki for dinner,
but due to the blandness I was halfway through it before I
realized my mistake. By then it was too late. I chucked the
remnants in the trash compactora flagrant violation of the
moon bases food-conservation directivesand hoped for
the best.
Instead I found myself running for the toilets at two fifteen. My bowels were rumbling so loudly I was surprised
they didnt wake everyone else at MBA.
Actually, what I really did was bound for the toilets. The
moons gravity is only one-sixth that of earths. Zero gravity, which we experienced on the spaceship, could be fun,
but one-sixth gravity is disorienting. For the first few days
at MBA, everyone essentially had to learn how to walk again
and spent a lot of time crashing into walls. We eventually
got the hang of it, though we still made mistakes at times. I
covered a dozen feet with each leap as I hurried through the
base, doing my best not to wipe out en route.
At first glance, the mens bathroom looks like any normal
communal bathroom on earth: tiled floor, three stalls, even a
12 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
bit of graffiti on the walls. (For a good time, call Princess Leia.)
However, there are no sinks. And no urinals. And the toilets look as though some sadistic plumber mated a vacuum
cleaner with an octopus.
The big problem with going to the bathroom on the moon
is the scarcity of water. NASA found some ice near the north
pole, but its difficult to extract and there isnt much of it,
which means every last drop of H2O we have is incredibly precious. Therefore, you dont flush your poop at MBA. Instead
you essentially do your business in a plastic bag, which is then
hermetically sealed, dehydrated, and sucked into a composter.
As for pee, you have to use a suction hose, which whisks everything away to a processor that filters out the impurities and
sends the rest back into the main reservoir tank.
Yes, we drink our own urine in space. They left that out
of Star Trek too.
The sitting-on-the-toilet part of the process usually takes
about five minutes, but thanks to the chicken parm, I was
there for the long haul that night. Thankfully, there was a
SlimScreen monitor on the inside of the stall door so I could
catch up on the latest news from earth. (In game two of the
World Series, the Charlotte Gladiators had beaten the Vegas
Mustangs 63.) Once I was done, I hit the evacuate button.
To my dismay, the toilet jammed. It made a loud gagging noise, like a cat with a hairball. Then a message on the
SPACE CASE 13
6/23/14 1:46 PM
SlimScreen informed me that the separator had failed and

wouldnt evacuate my poop until it was replaced. Unfortunately, I had no idea what a separator was.
Help, I said.
How may I be of assistance? the base computer asked,
speaking through the SlimScreen. The base computer always
speaks in an attractive female voice. (Thats one thing the
movies got right, although I think the computer might have
been programmed with a female voice because the movies
had conditioned us to expect one.) Most of the time its
rather soothing, but when youre a twelve-year-old boy on
the toilet with your pants around your ankles, a sexy female
voice can be a bit unnerving.
How do I replace the separator on the toilet? I asked,
and then thought to add, Quickly.
I would be delighted to process your request, the computer replied. A second later, instructions appeared on the
screen. Thankfully, they werent too complicated and there
were several spare separators stored in a bin above the toilet.
Replacing it still wasnt easy, though. It took another fifteen
minutes, which was why I was still in the bathroom when
Dr. Holtz walked in.
Ronald Holtz was one of the most brilliant men Id ever
met. He was an expert in low-gravity human physiology
essentially, how the body holds up in spaceand was his
14 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
own best guinea pig. He had done three extended tours on

the International Space Station and thus had spent more
time in space than virtually anyone alive. He was now almost
seventy, though he was in better shape than most men half
his age. Plus everyone liked him: He was always cheerful and
friendly, and he knew thousands of jokes. When the time
had come to select a physician for the base, there hadnt been
any other choice.
I was almost done replacing the separator when I heard
Dr. Holtz enter. I knew it was him because he was humming.
Dr. Holtz hummed whenever he was in a good mood. He
was doing an upbeat tune that night, one my parents liked
by some old-time singer named Lady Gaga. He didnt have
any idea I was there and I didnt try to tell him. I liked Dr.
Holtz a lot, but I didnt want to startle himand I didnt
want to reveal that Id busted the toilet. I listened to him
enter the first stall, pee, evacuate it, and sanitize his hands,
humming the whole time. He was walking out when I heard
him stop suddenly.
Hey, he said, as though he was greeting someone.
I hadnt heard anyone else enter, so I assumed Dr. Holtz
had just answered a phone call. He didnt seem very surprised to be doing this at two thirty in the morning, so I
figured hed been expecting the call.
I felt guilty eavesdropping, but I also didnt want to burst
SPACE CASE 15
6/23/14 1:46 PM
out of the stall and suddenly reveal my presence. I couldnt

think of a third option, so I stayed put and listened.
Yes, Dr. Holtz said, I think the time has come to
reveal the truth.
The other person must have asked why.
Because I dont see any point in keeping it a secret anymore, Dr. Holtz replied. Its too important. I know you
have reservations, but I assure you, this is for the best.
There was a pause while he listened to the other person
talking.
The space toilet chose this moment to belch some gas
that had built up in the system. Luckily, it wasnt loud, and
Dr. Holtz was too distracted to notice. However, since I
was perched right over the bowl, the gust of space-sewage
fumes hit me full on. It was like having an elephant break
wind in my face. I almost heaved up the rest of my chicken
parm.
No, I dont think so, Dr. Holtz said, out in the bathroom. This could be the most important discovery in all of
human history. Ive kept it under wraps for far longer than I
expected, as is. People need to know
Another pause.
Well, no, I cant tell everyone, Holtz said. Not yet. I
dont have the authority to inform the general public. But
NASA should know about this. And the government. And
16 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
the National Institute of Science. There are far better scientists than I who ought to be privy to this.
Another pause.
While I was fascinated by what Dr. Holtz was saying,
wondering what he could possibly be talking about, I was
also desperately trying to control my queasy stomach. The
nausea was passing, but it was taking its time. If the toilet
released any more gas, Id puke for sure.
When Dr. Holtz spoke again, he sounded thrilled.
Giddy with excitement. Then you agree? Thats fantastic! I
promise, you wont regret this. Everythings going to be fine.
Better than fine. Its going to be wonderful!
The other person evidently asked when the news was
going to be revealed.
First thing in the morning, Dr. Holtz replied. Id wake
everyone here and tell them now if I could. Weve waited
long enough.
A final pause.
All right. Lets say breakfast, then. Seven oclock. Tomorrow were going to make history!
Dr. Holtz then broke into laughter. Deliriously happy,
uncontrolled laughter. Although Id found his entire conversation intriguing, this was the most startling thing of all.
Id never heard Dr. Holtz laugh like that before. In fact Id
never heard anyone laugh like that before. It was like hed
SPACE CASE 17
6/23/14 1:46 PM
just snorted a whole tank of laughing gas. I listened to it fade

away as Dr. Holtz left the bathroom and headed back toward
the living quarters.
My stomach was feeling better, so I thought about running after Dr. Holtz and asking what was up, but I had my
hands full with the toilet repairs. In retrospect, I wish Id
said to heck with the toilet. Because Dr. Holtz didnt end
up revealing his amazing news to anyone the next morning
after all.
Instead, at five thirty a.m., in a direct violation of official Moon Base Alpha rules, he made an unauthorized trip
through the air lock onto the surface of the moon.
Two minutes later he was dead.
18 STUART GIBBS
6/23/14 1:46 PM
Ken Jennings Junior Genius

Guides: Outer Space
By Ken Jennings
About Ken Jennings

Junior Genius Guides:
Outer Space
Become an expert and wow your friends and
teachers with out-of-this-world facts: Did you
know that Mars has a volcano bigger than
the state of Arizona? Or that theres a star
with a diamond the size of our moon at its
core? With great illustrations, cool trivia, and
fun quizzes to test your knowledge, this guide
to outer space will have you on your way to
whiz-kid status in no time!
About the author

Ken Jennings grew up in Seoul, South Korea, where he became a daily devotee of
the quiz show Jeopardy! In 2004, he successfully auditioned for a spot on the
show and went on an unprecedented seventy-four game victory streak worth $2.52
million. Jenningss book Brainiac, about his Jeopardy! adventures, was a critically
acclaimed New York Times bestseller, as were his follow-up books Maphead and
Because I Said So! Jennings lives outside Seattle with his wife, Mindy, his son,
Dylan, his daughter, Caitlin, and a small, excitable dog named Chance.
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Introduction
Good morning, my young friends! Im Professor
Jennings, a certified expert on everything and,
luckily for you, your personal guide on your journey
to becoming a Junior Genius. Everyone can become a
Junior Genius, if theyre interested in the world around
them. Semper quaerens, thats our motto. Always
curious.
If youre like me (and, obviously, you at least wish
you were) you sometimes look up at the night sky and
ponder the mysteries of the cosmos. How did the universe begin? Is there life on other planets? What lies in
the dark heart of our galaxy? How do people go to the
bathroom in space? Today were going to tackle those
very questions by peering into the farthest reaches
of outer space. The only
telescopes you will need
are my nearly limitless
knowledge and your own
imagination.
4
Outer Space
At the beginning of every Junior Genius book, we

recommit ourselves to the pursuit of knowledge by
saying the Junior Genius Pledge. Please rise, face this
drawing of Albert Einstein, and place your right index
finger to your temple. Repeat after me:
With all my fellow Junior Geniuses, I

solemnly pledge to quest after questions,
to angle for answers, to seek out, and
to soak up. I will hunger and thirst for
knowledge my whole life through, and I
dedicate my discoveries to all humankind,
with trivia not for just us but for all.
Were headed for space, Junior Geniuses. T-minus
one page. Prepare for liftoff.
5
First Period
Our Mr. Sun
Have you ever complained about the Sun, Junior
Geniuses?
Its too hot today!
Ugh, thats bright.
No more sunscreen, Mom!
Well, after todays lesson, I never want to hear you

bad-mouth the Sun again! The only reason that life can
exist on Earth at all, everything from figs to walruses to
TV repairmen, is because of the light and warmth we get
from our nearest star.
6
Outer Space
This is the Sun.
Wait, thats not right. Why would the Sun need to

wear sunglasses? Think about it; how would that help?
Lets try that again.
No Crayons Allowed
Please dont color this drawing with a yellow crayon, Junior
Geniuses. Not only would that deface this fine book, it would
also be scientifically inaccurate! Sunlight only looks yellow
to us because were seeing it through our atmosphere. From
space the Sun is perfectly white!
Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides
When you look at the Sunwait, hold on. Public

service announcement:
The light is so intense it can literally cook the retinas

in your eyes. To observe the Sun, glance and then look
away. Dont stare. There are health faddists called
sungazers who claim they get all their nutrition from
staring at the Sun a few minutes a day. But that really
doesnt work, so please dont try this.
Okay. When you briefly glance at

the Sun, youre actually looking back in
time! Sunlight travels at the speed of
light, which means it takes an average
of eight minutes and twenty seconds
for it to reach the Earth. So the Sun outside your window isnt actually where
8
Outer Space
you think it is. By the time you see it, the real Sun has
moved forward two Sun-diameters in the sky.
But were going to travel back in time even further:

not eight and a half minutes but 4.5 billion years! Thats
when the story of our solar system begins.
A Star Is Born
Over 4 billion years ago a
nebulaa gigantic space-cloud
of
gascollapsed
on
itself,
possibly due to the shock wave

from a nearby exploding star.
As it shrank, the whirling cloud
began to spin faster and faster
and grow hotter and hotter. It
flattened into a big pizza-shaped
thing called a protoplanetary disk,
and soon thereafter (just 50
9
million yearsthats soon

in cosmic terms!) the middle
of the disk got hot enough to
light its nuclear furnace. The
Sun was born!
A lot of the leftover dust
and gas spinning around the
new baby Sun began to clump
together, which is how planets
form. But these werent the planets we know today!
There were probably hundreds of little planets zooming
around and smashing into each other, until they merged
into bigger ones. Others collided at such high speeds
(due to the immense gravity of big planets like Jupiter
and Saturn) that they shattered into tiny chunks called
asteroids.
Today, just eight main planets survive, most of which
weve named for different gods of Roman mythology.
Outer Space
Pop Quiz!
Since classical times, weve used special symbols to refer to
the planets and most refer to mythology. The Venus symbol,
, looks like a mirror, because she was the goddess of beauty.
Mars looks like a spear and shield, , because he was the god
of war. What is the Neptune symbol,, supposed to be?
A TR I D E N T
Spaceballs
But that diagram isnt quite accurate, because the solar
system is much, much bigger than we can draw in a
book. The Sun is massively bigger than everything else,
for one thing. It accounts for 99.8 percent of the mass of
the solar system! (Jupiter is most of the rest.)
The distances between planets
are even harder to imagine. Lets
pretend that a superpowerful alien
has somehow shrunk the eight
planets of our solar system to fit
inside a baseball stadium. (This
alien is apparently a big baseball
fan.) The solar system is so big that
our massive Sun would be the size
11
of a golf ball, sitting at home plate! At this scale, Mercury

is a dust speck in the batters box, while Venus and Earth
are grains of sand near the edge of the home plate circle.
Mars is another dust speck one-third of the way to the
pitchers mound. Jupiter and Saturn are the sizes of apple
seeds, with Jupiter sitting just past the pitchers mound
and Saturn at second base. Uranus is a pinhead near one
of the foul poles, and Neptune is a pinhead at the fence
in deep center field. (Pluto got kicked out of the ballpark
in 2006 for arguing with the umpires. Hit the showers,
Pluto.)
Heres the bottom line, Junior Geniuses: Space is
incredibly big. Our little solar system by itselfour own
tiny neighborhood in a vast galaxyis so big that it fries
even my amazing brain when I try to think about it.
12
Outer Space
Junior Genius Joviality!

Ask a grown-up how far its possible to see on a clear day. I
guarantee they will guess low! The correct answer, as long as
you can see the Sun, is 93 million miles. Thats also known as
one astronomical unitthe distance from the Earth to the Sun.
Whirled News
Today we take it for granted that the planets of the solar
system spin around the Sun, but for most of history
people have assumed that the Earth was the center of
the universe! Five hundred years ago heliocentrism (heelee-oh-SENT-rizz-um), or the idea that the Sun was the
center of things, was so controversial that people who
believed it could be put on
trial. The great astronomer
Galileo spent the last ten years
of his life under house arrest
for insisting it was the Earth
that moved around the Sun,
not the other way around.
Butsorry, Galileo!that
doesnt mean the Sun is the
exact center of the solar
13
system! Gravity works both ways, Junior Geniuses. The

Sun tugs on each planettake Jupiter for instance
in a big way, because the sun is so massive. But, at the
same time, Jupiter is tugging on the Sun in a small way.
Instead of saying that Jupiter orbits the Sun, its more
accurate to say that they both
orbit a third point, called a
barycenter, which is about
thirty thousand miles above
the surface of the Sun.
Are You Sitting Still?

The Earth is moving at a pretty
good clip right now: spinning
on its axis at 1,000 miles per
hour and whirling around the
Sun at 66,000 miles per hour.
But dont forget that the Sun is
moving too, spinning around the
Milky Way like a giant pinwheel
at about 483,000 miles per hour. And today scientists can use
leftover radiation from the Big Bang to measure how fast our
whole galaxy is moving through the universe: 1.3 million miles
per hour!
14
Outer Space
We dont feel any of this motion, of course, because everything

around us is moving at the exact same speed we are. But
the next time a grown-up says, Have you been sitting in that
chair all day? Get up and get some exercise! tell them youve
already covered a few million miles today, and youre pooped !
All Systems Glow

But lets take a close-up look at the Sun. (NOTE: AGAIN,
DO NOT TAKE A REAL CLOSE-UP LOOK AT THE
SUN. IT IS VERY BRIGHT.) Luckily, Mr. Sun produces
a lot of energy, or we would be very cold right now and
bumping into things all the time. But where does that
energy come from?
At the middle of the
Sun is a very dense core,
where the pressure gets
pretty intenseover one
hundred times what it is
at the bottom of Earths
oceans, in fact. All that
gravity pushes atoms
together with a pressure
of one hundred tons
per square inch, enough
15
to crush atoms into each other. Hydrogen atoms fuse

together to form helium atoms, and that process produces the energy that powers the Sun.
Lighter than Air

Helium is the second most common element in the universe
(after hydrogen), but it went undiscovered until 1868, when
astronomers spotted the wavelength of a new element in the
sunlight emitting from an eclipse. Earth has large underground
deposits of helium gas, but the element was discovered millions of miles away on the Sun almost thirty years before it was
discovered right here under our feet!
The fusion in the Suns core

produces little energy particles
called photonsbut they dont
radiate out into space right away.
In fact, they bounce around
inside the Sun for thousands of
years before making their way to
the surface.
So the sunlight you see in
the sky today might have been born in the Suns core
as much as 170,000 years ago!
16
Outer Space
All that fusion produces a lot of energy. In fact,

the Sun produces the equivalent of 77 trillion atomic
bombsevery second. If we could somehow collect just
one seconds worth of that energy, it could power human
civilization for the next half a million years!
Despite all that, the
weird thing about the
surface of the Sun is
that its not very hot.
Well, okay, its almost
ten thousand degrees
Fahrenheit, which
is pretty hot for, say, a bowl of ramen. But its not
that hot on a cosmic scale. Right here on Earth,
a bolt of lightning is five times hotter than
the surface of the Sun, which doesnt seem
right. The temperature at the core of the
sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit,
while its outermost layer, the corona,
is 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit.
So why is the bright photosphere
so much chillier than the dark
corona?
17
For many years scientists were baffled, but a

new discovery may partly explain the problem.
We now know that, believe it or not, there
are thousands of giant magnetic tornadoes
swirling around the upper levels of the Sun
at speeds greater than six thousand miles an
hour. Some are the size of the United States!
These twisters pull heat from the inner layers
of the Sun and inject it out into the corona.
Fun on the Sun

Giant megatornadoes arent the only thing the surface
of the Sun has going for it. In fact, theres a lot to see
on the Sun. (NOTE: AGAIN, DO NOT TRY TO SEE
THINGS ON THE SUN. IT IS DANGEROUSLY BIG
AND SHINY.)
E SUN!
AT TH
K
O
O
L
T
DO NO
SOLAR PROMINENCES
What are they? Huge loops of gas
that surge out into space and can hang

around for weeks or even months.
18
Outer Space
Cool, but why should I care? Because theyre
huge! The biggest ones on record extended half a million

miles into space.
SUNSPOTS
What are they? Dark, cool
dots on the Suns surface caused by

magnetism. They come and go in an
eleven-year cycle.
Cool, but why should I care? They may have
helped cause an ice age! In the late seventeenth century,

a period of low sunspot activity called the Maunder
Minimum corresponded with a period of bitterly cold
weather.
SOLAR WIND
What is it? A constant stream of
invisible but electrically charged particles the Sun releases in all directions.
Cool, but why should I care? It could interrupt
your cartoons. Strong solar wind can mess up radio and

TV signals. It also causes the auroras that shine in the
sky over the North and South Poles.
19
SOLAR FLARES
What are they? Sudden bright
flashes on the Sun that eject a massive

amount of energy from the corona.
Cool, but why should I care? They could literally
light you on fire! The Carrington Event was a massive

solar storm caused by a flare on September 1, 1859.
The northern lights extended all the way south to the
Caribbean that day, and were so bright you could read by
them all night. Birds started chirping at midnight, and
people accidentally got up and went to work. Telegraph
poles all over the world sparked, and some telegraph
machines built up so much charge they could send messages without being plugged in! In Washington, DC, an
arc of fire jumped from the telegraph to the head of its
operator, badly burning him.
Outer Space
It Came from the Oort Cloud!

The solar wind is also what puts the tails on comets!
Comets are chunks of ice and dust a few miles wide that
come from two areas with funny names way out at the
edge of the solar system: the Kuiper Belt and the Oort
cloud. Their very long orbits occasionally bring them
near the Earth, and we can see their 60-million-milelong tails of gas and dust being blown away from the
coma (the head of the comet) by the solar wind.
THE TAIL DOESN'T TRAVEL BEHIND THE COMET AS IT

MOVES . . . IT ALWAYS POINTS AWAY FROM THE SUN.
Five Cool Comets to Know
SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9. Crashed into Jupiter
in 1994, leaving scars that were visible from Earth for

months.
SWIFT-TUTTLE. Causes an amazing meteor
shower called the Perseids in the night sky every August

as Earth passes through its debris trail.
21
THE COMET THAT KILLED THE

DINOSAURS. Sixty-six million years ago something
crashed into a shallow sea off the coast of Mexico,
kicking up dust that killed 70 percent of all the species
on Earth. Today many scientists believe the extinction
bomb was a comet.
WILD 2. Visited in 2004 by a NASA probe called

Stardust, which collected dust samples from its coma and
shot them back to Earth in a little capsule for analysis.
HALLEYS COMET. Swings by Earth every
seventy-five years, so well see it next in 2061. The

writer Mark Twain was born in 1835, when Halleys
Comet was in the sky, and said he expected to go out
with it as well. Sure enough, he died in 1910, one day
after the comets return.
22
Outer Space
Panic in the Streets

When Halleys Comet passed by Earth in 1910, one astronomer
predicted that the gases in the comets tail might be poisonous.
The public freaked out, and crooked businessmen made
a killing selling gas masks, comet-proof umbrellas, and
anti-comet pills that cost a dollar a pop!
Fade to Black
The Sun wont burn forever, of course. At some point itll
run out of hydrogen to fuse, and the lights will go out.
That collapse will happen in about 8 billion yearsbut
look at the bright side, Junior Geniuses. It will finally
be safe to look at the Sun without a grown-up
nagging you!
But before it gets colder, the Sun will do something
worse: It will get hotter! In about 3.5 billion years, the
seas will boil, and Earth will become unable to support
life. Hopefully the human race will have found someplace
better to live by then.
23
The Incredible Space Raiders

from Space!
By Wesley King
About The Incredible

Space Raiders from Space!
When Jonah wakes up on the Fantastic
Flying Squirrel, hes a bit confused. One
second he is in his familys living room doing
his homework, the next hes sitting on a very
cold floor on a very cold ship with a very
strange-looking girl staring at him. Her name
is Willona the Awesome, and shes here to
welcome him to the Incredible Space Raiders.
Now that Jonah is on board, the Incredible Space Raiders can set off on the most
exceptional of all missions: to save the universe from the Entirely Evil Things from
the Darkest Zone. But strange things happen on the Fantastic Flying Squirrel, and
as they set off across the stars, Jonah decides that he wants to know the truth.
What follows is an incredible story of adventure, mystery, and fantastical fun that
explores both the stars and the immeasurable spirit of kids.
So give yourself an awesome name, climb aboard the Fantastic Flying Squirrel,
and get ready for an unforgettable journey where imagination and truth collide
somewhere deep in space.
About the author

Wesley King is the author of The Vindico and the sequel, The Feros; both books
were Junior Library Guild selections. He won the Red Maple Award for The Vindico,
a kids choice award in his home province of Ontario, Canada, which more than
250,000 kids participated in.
CHAPTER ONE
Jonah blinked several times before he realized she

was not going away. He took one last extra-long blink,
just to be sure, and then opened his eyes. Still there.
Ready to wake up yet? she asked politely.
No, he replied.
She smiled and nodded. Okay. I can wait.
Jonah frowned and looked around the room. It
was small and mostly empty, apart from a cot tucked
against the wall. The walls themselves were made of
rusty-looking gray metal, and a few dim light panels
flickered on the ceiling, casting everything in an eerie
white glow. Jonah wondered why he was sitting on the
floor. It was hard and cold.
When he finally turned back to the girl, she was
still just smiling patiently and staring at him like he
was a new pet. She seemed a little odd.
For one, she was wearing what could only be
described as a uniform. It was a faded brown color
and far too big, but it had a belt and a black patch
sewn onto the chest. The patch said ISR in red letters.
That was strange enough for someone who must have
been about eleven years old. But she also had on a

pair of broken glasses, was wearing bright red lipstick,
and had wild chestnut hair tied up in bunches, like a
porcupine having a bad hair day.
Who are you? Jonah asked.
She stood at attention and saluted. Willona the
Awesome, at your service.
Jonah raised his eyebrows. Your name is Willona
the Awesome?
Exactly.
Jonah looked around the room again. And where
am I?
The Fantastic Flying Squirrel.
Jonah rubbed his forehead. The what?
The Fantastic Flying
I heard you, Jonah said quickly. Why am I here?
Willona smiled happily. Because you have been
specially selected to join the Incredible Space Raiders
from Space. You should be honored. There were only
two hundred members chosen from the entire solar
system. And you were the last! The extra-special
recruit. Thats why we gave you such a good room.
Jonah looked around. This is a good room?
Willona shrugged and gestured behind him. Well,
you got a window.
Jonah slowly turned around. His eyes widened.
He wasnt leaning against a wall. It was a window.
The reflection of a small, skinny boy with a mop of

messy auburn hair and bright green eyes was staring
back at him. Behind that reflection, and behind a few
inches of extra-thick glass, was outer space.
And sitting in that, now small in the distance,
was the familiar blue-and-green ball that was Earth,
where his big, white-bricked home with a long black
driveway and neatly trimmed lawn stood at the end of
Eleventh Drive.
Jonah stared out the window for a moment and
then turned back to Willona.
What is the Fantastic Flying Squirrel? he
whispered.
Willona smiled. Come with me.
Willona led Jonah down a long hallway made of
the same dark-gray metal as the room hed woken up
in. Dusty old light panels ran along the ceiling, and
most of them were flickering ominously or out altogether. Large steel double doors with black-and-yellow stripes blocked the hallway farther ahead. There
was no plush carpet or nice pictures or anything else
Jonah was used to seeing in hallways on Earthjust
identical gray doors lining both walls, all with little
grooves for handles. There were lots of those.
As they walked, kids in overlarge brown uniforms
kept marching by or popping out of open doorways.
Every one of them grinned at Jonah and saluted crisply.
They looked normal enough, besides the uniforms

and the fact that many were holding long metal pipes
like weapons. They were all kids, the oldest only about
fifteen years old, and he did notice that a few were
wearing either ratty old sneakers or no shoes at all.
This hallway is called Squirrel Street, Willona
said, gesturing around them. Its where every Space
Raider lives. But you see those big double doors with
the warning stripes? Squirrel Street continues on the
other side of it, but we cant go there unless ordered
by a lieutenant or the commander, because thats the
next sectorthere are four sectors total. This is Sector
Three. Its clearly the best sector, which is probably
why they put me here.
Jonah felt he should sit down. She patted one of
the identical gray doors.
Most of these doors lead to bedrooms like yours,
but we also have bathrooms and, of course, a cafeteriaone for each sector. She glanced back. Are you
all right?
Jonah shook his head. No.
Thats okay, she said. Its a lot to take in.
It wasnt the fact that they were in space that
was so perplexing to Jonah. In the year 2156, space
travel was fairly common. Humans had overpopulated Earth fifty years ago, and they now also lived in
domed colonies all across the solar system. There was
even a colony on icy Pluto. Jonah had never been on

a spaceship before, but his parents had.
What was confusing was that the only people he
had seen on this ship were a group of children, and
they were marching around like they were the crew.
That had to be illegal.
Where are the adults? Jonah asked.
Willona laughed and kept walking. Adults? The
ISR doesnt need adults.
Jonah frowned as a boy with red hair saluted and
walked by.
Who are you people?
Ah, Willona said, I should probably explain.
She stopped in the middle of the hallway and
pulled a notepad out of her uniform pocket. Adjusting
her glasseseven though there were no lensesshe
turned to the first page and started reading.
Welcome, recruit. Youre probably wondering

where you are. She looked up and smiled. I really
should start with this.
Willona continued reading.
Four years ago scientists on Earth made a

groundbreaking discovery. They found new life.
I never heard about that, Jonah said.
She glanced up at him. May I continue?
Sorry, Jonah murmured.
There was just one problem: The life they found
was not friendly. They called them the Entirely Evil

Thingsor the EETs. The EETs come from a starless
part of our galaxy called the Dark Zone. The scientists
observed black ships flying out of the Dark Zone, and
whenever the EETs found a habitable planet, they
landed and proceeded to consume all life. Earth sent
a ship to the Dark Zone to make contact, but they
never heard from it again. Since then, weve stopped
trying to talk.
Jonah didnt like where this was going.
On that day, Earth came up with a new plan. The
Incredible Space Raidersthats uswere selected
to travel to the Dark Zone and destroy the Entirely
Evil Things.
Jonah paled. That didnt sound good. But were
just kids.
Exactly, Willona said, looking up. The EETs
prey on our weaknessesour fears and mistakes and
worries. An adult has too many. And so the ISR is
made up entirely of children: those pure of heart and
full of noble intention.
She returned to her notes.
If we dont stop them, the Entirely Evil Things
will spread across the universe, consuming everything
in their path. And so you, noble recruit, are now officially a member of Earths last defense, and you are
tasked with saving humanity from evil.
Willona closed the notepad and met Jonahs eyes.

And that is not the only danger we face, she
whispered, looking around the hallway. The Squirrel
is home to two other forces of evil. The first is Captain
White Shark and his crew. They were hired by Earth
to take us to the Dark Zone, because only a crew so
evil could ever survive there. There are rumors that
they kill Space Raiders for fun. Not sure if its true,
but I wouldnt be surprised. Trust meyou dont
want to find out.
Jonah felt his knees wobbling.
Willona leaned in. But thats not the worst thing
on this ship.
Its not? Jonah murmured.
She shook her head. We call it the Shrieker. It
roams the hallways, coming and going like a shadow.
Youll hear it in your sleep. What is it? We dont know.
A ghost, maybe. An alien creature. A monster. But
its not human, we know that. And it preys on Space
Raiders who venture outside the safety of Squirrel
Street.
Willona stood up straight.
This is a dangerous ship. But we are Space
Raiders, and our only job is to survive long enough to
get to the Dark Zone and save the universe from evil.
Do you accept your noble task?
Well, Jonah said.
Excellent, Willona cut in. Shall we?

She continued marching down the hallway, and
Jonah hurried to catch up. They walked past a second, smaller hallway that joined up with Squirrel
Street. Gathered at the entrance to the hallway were
ten Space Raiders standing in front of a tall boy with
dark hair and serious brown eyes. He was giving them
a lesson.
The EETs are big, he said, but they have trouble hitting a moving target. You have to be fast, and
when the time comes you have to attack even faster.
He started swinging his metal pipe back and forth
in a complex pattern, and then he suddenly lunged
forward, stabbing at an invisible enemy, shouting,
Take that, fiend! As he did, the other Space Raiders
followed him in perfect synchronization. They looked
very impressive with their matching brown uniforms.
For just a second, Jonah thought it might be nice
to be on a team. Hed never been on one before, other
than the Science Club, and they definitely didnt get
to use weapons, unless you counted the time Jonahs
experiment blew up and turned his partners face
green. But these kids looked like a real team: They
followed orders and worked together and were probably friends, which wasnt really like the Science Club
either. Jonah didnt have a lot of friends. Actually, he
didnt have any. Taking one last look at the group of
kids, he hurried after Willona, who was already well

past the hallway.
For the next week, you will be in training, Willona
said as he fell into step behind her. I call the program
Space Raider Training 101. She stopped and handed
him a sheet of paper. Here. Ive prepared you a syllabus for Day One.
SILABUS CYLABUS SYLLABUS?

1. Introduction to the ISR
2. Tour of Sector Three:
Refreshments Available
3. Break (Naptime?)
4. Uniform Fitting
5. Bonker Training with AlexNO
ADVENTURING
6. Orientation Session: Ship
Schedule
7. Rules Pop Quiz (Pretend you
didnt see that)
8. Dinner!
9. Bedtime: I DO NOT Tuck In
Jonah frowned as he looked over the syllabus. He
had so many questions, it was hard to pick just one.
But there was one thing Willona had said that had
kind of stood out.
How do you know the Shrieker preys on Space

Raiders?
Willona just started marching again, and Jonah
jogged after her.
How do you know? he asked again.
Willona hesitated and looked at him. Because its
already eaten seven of us.
10
AstrotwinsProject Blastoff
By Mark Kelly
About Astrotwins
Project Blastoff
Its a long, hot summer and Scott and Mark
are in big trouble for taking apart (a.k.a.
destroying) their dads calculator. As a
punishment, theyre sent to their grandfathers
house, where theres no TV and they have
to do chores. And Grandpa is less tolerant of
the twins constant bickering. Why dont you
two work together on something constructive.
What if you built a go-kart or something?
Grandpa suggests.
But its not a go-kart the twins are interested in. They want to build a rocket. With
the help of Jenny, nicknamed Egg, and a crew of can-do kids, they set out to build
a real rocket that will blast off and orbit the Earth. The question soon becomes:
which twin will get to be the astronaut?
About the authors

Mark Kelly is a retired astronaut and US Navy Captain. He flew his first of four
missions in 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, the same space shuttle that he
commanded on its final flight in May 2011.
Martha Freeman is the author of twenty books for young readers of all ages,
including The Year MyParents RuinedMy Life, theChickadee Court Mysteries, and
the First Kid Mysteries. Who Stole Halloween? wason theTexas Bluebonnet Award
Master List, and The Case of the Diamond Dog Collar was nominated for Indianas
Young Hoosier Book Award. Her books have been translated into Turkish, Japanese,
Portuguese, Italian, and French. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and you can
visit her at MarthaFreeman.com.
Chapter 1
July 18, 1975
This time the twins were determined. Nothing would go
wrong.
Scott had stationed Major Nelson, the familys big,
brown, friendly mutt, at the back door to bark if Mom
came home early.
Mark had laid newspapers on Dads basement workbench.
They had assembled their tools.
And they were absolutely going to follow the advice
Grandpa Joe gave them for anytime you took something
apart: Lay the parts down in order so when you put the
pieces back together, you can simply reverse the process.
Easy!
Its like Grandpa Joe always says: Learn from your
mistakes, Mark said.
4P_Astrotwins_INT REV3.indd 1
1/15/15 10:46 AM
2.................................................. Mark Kelly
Yeah, and since weve made so many, we ought to be

geniuses by now, Scott agreed.
Mark laughed. Okay, so go ahead. Ill keep everything organized.
With a screwdriver made for repairing eyeglasses,
Scott removed two screws, which Mark placed in the top
left corner of the newspaper.
Thenthe best partScott removed the plastic
backplate and the boys got their first look inside Dads
calculator.
Cool! they chorused.
Exposed, the insides resembled staples, pushpins,
and grains of rice, all of them tiny and arrayed around
a white plastic rectangle. The biggest piece was the battery, which was easy to recognize and easy to remove.
After that, there were six more screws.
Mark duly put each in its place on the newspaper.
Should we take out the CPU? Scott asked.
Mark knew CPU stood for central processing unit,
that it was made of a material called silicon, and that it
was the brains of the calculator. What he didnt know
was which piece it was, but no way was he going to admit
that to his brother. Sure, he said.
Scott used the tip of the screwdriver to pry up the
white plastic rectangle, and out it popped.
Are you sure you can plug that back in there? Mark
asked.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
ASTROTWINS: Project blastoff. . ............................... 3
You mean, am I sure we can plug it back in there?

Scott said. Yeah, of course. I think. And these are transistors, right? He indicated black spheres that looked
like beads.
Mark nodded. I guess, but they sure look different from the ones in the TV. Years ago, the boys had
watched fascinated as the TV repairman worked on their
old black-and-white set. After that, they decided to see
what was inside other machines, like the clock radio, the
sewing machine, and the lawn mower.
Usually, they got in trouble, but it was worth it.
Scott had just lifted up the calculator to examine the
underside of the display when Major Nelsons excited
barking made him jump. Shes home! he said.
Shes early! Mark said.
She wont come down here, Scott said. Will she?
We cant take that chance, Mark said and, hurrying, handed his brother each calculator piece to replace.
Upstairs, their moms heels clicked on the kitchen floor
as she put groceries away. Another soundthump-thumpthumpmeant Major Nelson was bounding all around
her, hoping for a treat.
So focused were the boys on reassembly that they
didnt realize the danger till they heard Moms heels
echoing on the wooden basement steps. By now the
boys had been in this predicament so often, they knew
the countdown.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
4.................................................. Mark Kelly
3 . . . Scott closed his eyes, prepared to accept his

fate.
2 . . . Mark made a last-ditch attempt to hide what
theyd been doing, in the process yanking the newspaper
off the workbench.
1 . . . Mom appeared in the doorway, just in time to
see a scattering of tiny calculator parts bouncing every
which way on the floor.
Ignition: Boys! Mom cried. What in the heck have
you done now?
1/15/15 10:46 AM
Chapter 2
After the calculator catastrophe, Scott and Mark estimated theyd be grounded for approximately one century,
with maybe a decade off for good behavior.
But that wasnt what happened.
Instead, once the initial lecture was over, Mom and
Dad took the whole thing surprisingly calmly. And the
next day they announced they were packing the boys off
to Grandpa Joes for a week. Grandpa Joe McAvoy was
their moms dad, a widower who lived in a cabin by a
lake about an hours drive north by car, near the New
YorkNew Jersey state line.
You mean, instead of punishing us, youre rewarding
us? Mark asked.
That doesnt make any sense, Scott said. I mean . . .
not that its a bad idea, though.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
6.................................................. Mark Kelly
Its an excellent idea, said Mark. And were really

sorry about the calculator.
We told you that already, right? Scott said.
You did, said Mr. Kelly. He wasnt smiling, but he
wasnt yelling either. Your mom and I think the trouble
is, youre bored around the house. Grandpa Joes got
plenty of work for you to do.
Our idea is, youll be so busy at Grandpas, you
wont have time to get in trouble, Mom concluded.
Get it?
Got it, said Mark and Scott.
Good, said their parents.
The Kelly family lived in a friendly neighborhood in
West Orange, New Jerseyonly fifteen miles from New
York City. The Kellys two-story house was gray rock with
white trim and very well kept because, as their dad put it,
there were two healthy boys to serve as slave labor. Since
Mr. and Mrs. Kelly both worked long hours at hard jobs,
Mark and Scott mowed the lawn, mulched the flower
beds, watered, and weeded. But the yard was small. So
in summer, there was plenty of time left over for goofing
around . . . and getting bored.
Mark and Scott were the only kids in their family.
Their parents said two were plenty when they were as
rough-and-tumble as the twins. The boys were alike in
many waysgood at sports, curious about everything,
and fast learners when they wanted to be.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
But there were differences, too.

Mark was inclined both to act first and speak first.
He liked to tease his brother. There was trouble when he
didnt get his way.
Scott was more even-tempered and usually thought
before speaking. He also had a good sense of humor
about himself, which was kind of a requirement for getting along with his brother.
The next day was Sunday. Mr. Kelly was a police officer who often worked nights, so in the morning he drove
the boys north in the familys Ford Country Squire station
wagon with wood paneling on the side.
The drive was mostly on the highway. The car had no
air-conditioning. The ride was hot and boring, and both
boys fell asleep. When they woke up, it was because the car
was bump-bumping along the ruts of their grandfathers
unpaved driveway.
Wheres Grandpa Joe? Mark asked a few minutes
later. He and Scott had dumped their duffel bags in
Twin Territory, which is what they called the secondfloor loft where they always slept. The house, as always,
was unlocked. Grandpa said that if he wanted to lock his
doors, he would have stayed in the city.
Search me, Mr. Kelly said. I told him what time
wed be getting here, give or take.
Hello-o-o! a voice called from the path leading
to the shore of nearby Greenwood Lake. Scott, Mark,
1/15/15 10:46 AM
8.................................................. Mark Kelly
and their dad turned, and here came Grandpa, wearing

denim overalls with no shirt underneath.
Dad shook his head and laughed. Ever the snappy
dresser, Joseph.
Grandpa tugged at the shoulder straps. You like the
Farmer John look, eh? Well, of course you do! Overalls
provide all the ventilation you could want on a hot day,
plus you cant beat em for comfort. Now, how are my
outlaw grandsons?
Grandpa Joe had served in the merchant marine and
later captained a fireboat in New York Harbor. Now,
depending on the day of the week, he identified his
occupation as either farmer, architect, or mechanic.
He was a farmer because he had a patch of vegetables
planted behind the house and two hens whose eggs he
could never find.
He was an architect because he had designed and
built his house himselfor, more accurately, was working on designing and building it. Not all the rooms had
walls, and parts of the roof were just blue tarp.
And he was a mechanic because he had a rusted-out
Model A pickup truck up on blocks beside the house and
a barn he used as a workshop out back. Brimming with
tools, parts, bits, pieces, junk, discards, cobwebs, grease,
and gewgaws, the workshop was a source of endless fascination to the twins, in part because they were never
allowed to visit without strict supervision.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
Grandpa said he was afraid that otherwise they might

blow something up.
Neither Dad nor Grandpa was a hugger, so the two
shook hands and slapped backs and said, Great to see
you. Then they all went inside and rustled up bread,
apples, and peanut butter for lunch. Peanut butter, in
Grandpas opinion, was the perfect food.
They ate at a picnic table under a tree, and then Dad
said he had to leave to get to work. Be good, boys. And
do what your grandpa tells you.
We will, Dad, said Mark.
We promise, said Scott.
1/15/15 10:46 AM
Galactic Hot Dogs:

Cosmoes Wiener Getaway
By Max Brallier
Illustrated by Rachel Maguire
About Galactic Hot Dogs:
Cosmoes Wiener Getaway
Meet Cosmoe, the Earth-Boy. Hes captain
of the Neon Weiner, the finest flying food
truck in the galaxy. Along with his bud,
Big Humphree, he spends his days cruising
the cosmos and staying crazy busy doing
things like:
1. Cooking up a Mega-Dog. (Dude, this hot
dog is the size of a jeep!)
2. Escaping mutant worm monsters, zombie space pirates, and grumpy robots.
(What the butt?!)
3. Playing Super Moon Ninja Death Jab (Turbo Ear Slap! 9,000 points!!)
4. AndPROTECTING THE GALAXY from the Ultimate Evil. (Hes kind of an
awesome space guy.)
About the author and illustrator

Max Brallier is the author of more than twenty books for children and adults,
including tie-in books for the popular show Adventure Time and the acclaimed
Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? He lives in New York City with his wife,
Alyse, where he spends his time chasing fortune, glory, and the perfect hot dog.
Rachel Maguire is an award-winning illustrator and animator. She teaches comics to
children, and lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Jon, and her cat, Becky.
g
o
d
e
a
g
m
This is going to be the best

Hot dog we've ever made!!!
When dudes eat this they're
going to be like hot dog,
that hot dog
was delicious.
wo more dashes of Jupiter Jolt sauce, my buddy

Humphree says as he piles on the ingredients.
Thats me, Cosmoe, the little human with the big hair.
Humphrees the big, alien-looking guy. Were on Space
Port Funketoun, cooking up a Mega-Dog for the
Intragalactic Food Truck Cook-Off.
Dude! This thing is the size of a freaking Jeep!
People are going to love the Mega-Dog! I exclaim.
Whats a Jeep? Humphree asks.
Ugh. Sometimes I forget Im the only one
around here from Planet Earth. Never mind!
Cmon, lets get this thing to the cook-off!
The Intragalactic Food Truck Cook-Off is a major event.

Flying food trucks come from
all across the galaxy to serve up
crazy treats for the Queen.
Our truck is the Neon Wiener, and its docked
close to the market where the contest goes
down. Sweet scents from a thousand
different exotic dishes waft through the air.
This could be our
ticket to the bigtime, little buddy.

If we win this
cook-off, We'll
be bona fide!
Evil Queen Dagger judges the cook-off. Shes royalty and

shes mega-rich, so she has, like,
million soldiers
and spies working for her. And if she doesnt like your
food, she just might disintegrate you . . .
37
This jerk.
No one likes her.
You think Evil Queen Dagger will like the Mega-Dog?

I ask Humphree.
Humphree can tell Im nervous. Hes observant like that.
Of course shell like it, he says. No ones going to have
anything nearly as good as this. I doubt there will be any
competition at all
Intragalactic
food truck
cook-off
Aww,
smudge!
Dude, dont stress it, Humphree says. As long as we have

the Mega-Dog, we cant lose. And the Mega-Dog isnt going
anywhere, right?
WRONG!
JUST THEN
That hooded jerk nabbed our Mega-Dog! I shout.

Humphree doesnt say anything. He just
makes his ol rumbling noise.
Ever since Humphree retired from the pirate life, hes
been a pretty mellow, chilled-out guy. But when he gets
really mad, he starts making this rumbling noise and
whoo boy, watch outyou dont want to
mess with him. I mean, look at his stats:
BIG HUMPHREE
STATS
Species: Bronkle
Home planet: Bronkellia
Age: 127 Bronkle years
(34 standard years)
Height: 7' 2"
Weight: 1.1 tons
STRENGTH
SPEED
SENSE OF HUMOR
APPETITE
AWESOMENESS
FRIENDSHIP LEVEL
AWESOMENESS AT FIGHTING
Humphree . . . I say, trying to remain cool and calm. Just

relax. Dont get all crazy on me. This is a job for
Goober is the rubbery, elastic blob that is

F A C T : forever
wrapped around my arm. Goober is
symbiotic and lives off my adrenalinethat means he

cant leave my side or hell die! But its worth it, cause
Goober is freakin rad and can turn into all sorts of
awesome junk, like . . .
!
HAMMER
E
H
T
R
E
GOOB
HE FIST!
T
R
E
B
O
GO
THE
GOOBER G PAL WHO
ANNOYIN VER LEAVES
NEVER, E
THE
GOOBER PENER!
FART DAM
BACK TO THE ACTION!

Im darting through the market
trying to find the thief. I catch
a glimpse of the Mega-Dog,
bobbing above the crowd.
THERE!
The crowd clears and goofy
aliens step to the side.
PERFECT!
I flex my wrist, letting Goober
know its about to be action
time. Goober, go! I shout,
and then . . .
SHMACK!
I yank on Lasso-Goober and
bring the jerk thief stumbling
back. And thats when I
discover the thief is . . .
OH MAN.
I just Goober-grabbed the
heir to the intergalactic
Throne of Evil!
MY MIND RACES.
Im thinking on how bad
this is going to get when I
hear a voice shout:
-SELLING CREATURE
THE TINY, HOT-DOG
SS DAGGER
AT TACKED PRINCE
Hang on, folks. This is about to

get uglier than a butt convention.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I shout. Little misunderstanding
here. I didnt attack anyone. And Im not a tiny, hot-dogselling creature I AM COSMOE THE EARTH-BOY!
Humphree grabs me by the shoulder. We need to split!
I yank the Mega-Dog out of the thiefs hands.
Not without this!
And then its off to the races . . .
EXCUSE ME!
WATCH OUT!
COMING THROUGH!
We come out of the crowd, and I see our ship in the

distance! I fish inside my pocket, grab the Neon Wiener
keys, and hit the UNLOCK DOOR button.
Behind us, energy cannons are blasting away. Lucky for me,
Humphree is both heavily armored and heavily protective.
Humphree holds up the angry mob while I try to squeeze
the Mega-Dog through the door.
GET INSIDE! Humphree barks.
Not without the
MEGA-DOG!
Little buddy, I am going to kill you

when we get out of here.
Forget about the hot dog!
No! We spent
a lot of time
cooking up this
winning wiener!
I push and push and push.
Arghhh! Im totally scuffing up the Mega-Dog.

Finally, it squeezes through.
Inside the cockpit, Im flipping switches, and pressing

buttons, and spinning knobs like crazy.
Humphree makes it inside, and about 5 space seconds later,
the engines are heating up and the ship is undocking.
Another 7 seconds and the Neon Wiener is rocketing into
interstellar space, leaving behind Princess Dagger and the
angry Port Funketoun mob.
But now Big Humps wants to talk . . .

He places one of his massive paws on my shoulder.
COSMOEHEART-TO-HEART TIME. YOU CANT JUST
BE WHIPPING GOOBER AROUND AND LASSOING EVIL
PRINCESSES. ITS BAD FOR BUSINESS!
I hang my head. Im sorry, Humps. But she

was stealing the Mega-Dog!
Humps scratches his chin. Good point, but still
Were interrupted by a silky smooth voice saying . . .
Excuse me, Gentlemen.
My throat goes gulp.
Its Evil
Princess Dagger.
And she is aboard our ship!
What the butt?! What are
you doing here??
Stealing your ship, silly. Im
an evil princess. Yknow?
I start stuttering, NO-NO.
NO-NO. NO. You cant be here!
Your evil mom is gonna think we
kidnapped you. Shell kill us!
Princess Dagger is about to
respond, when
BLEEP BLEEP
BLEEP
Brace for impact,
our pet robot,
F.R.E.D., says.
The Royal Navy
SMUDGE!
I exclaim. Theyre
trying to shoot us out
of space!
The princess has a sly
smile on her face.
Duh! They think you
kidnapped me.
I shoot her a suprememean look. and then I
hang on tight . . .
F.R.E.D. FACT
Jack Jet
THESE WICKED-FAST FIGHTER SHIPS

MAKE UP THE EVIL QUEEN DAGGERS ROYAL NAVY.
PILOTED BY ROBOT SOLDIERS KNOWN AS JACKS
AND ARMED WITH ENERGY CANNONS AND

SUPER-FLAME ROCKETS, JACK JETS ARE BAD NEWS.
SOMETHING
REALLY
DUMB!
F.R.E.D. FACT
Interstellar Highway
THE INTERSTELLAR HIGHWAY STRETCHES FROM
ONE END OF THE GALAXY TO THE OTHER.
AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT, THERE ARE ROUGHLY

6 BILLION SHIPS TRAVELING ITS LENGTHS.
REST STOPS ALONG THE HIGHWAY

ARE NOTORIOUSLY NASTY: FULL OF
GREASY FOOD, BREATHING BATHROOMS,
AND SHIP-DEVOURING TRAV-GRAB MONSTERS.
More adventures await!

Get ready for more in
space with these books!
Ambassador
by William Alexander
Space Case
by Stuart Gibbs
Ken Jennings
Junior Genius Guides:
Outer Space
by Ken Jennings
The Incredible Space

Raiders from Space!
by Wesley King
Astrotwins
Project Blastoff
by Mark Kelly
Galactic Hot Dogs:

Cosmoes Wiener
Getaway
by Max Brallier

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SPACE

Ambassador by William Alexander

The Incredible Space Raiders from Space!

About the author

park. The noise and splash startled several geese, ducks,

So? said Frankie.

Lightweight. They cause less damage when they hit

children, looking for a familiar one. He stood up from

Gabe picked up Andrs and plucked the plastic shovel

Your baby sisters making a break for it, Frankie said,

Gabe strapped the twins into their double stroller

They wouldnt ever get into a fight, said Gabe. He

Frankies voice got even louder. I cant hear you over

About Space Case

About the author

Moon Base Alpha Resident Directory

4P Space Case int.indd 11

Cesar Marquez (16)

4P Space Case int.indd 12

4P Space Case int.indd 13

4P Space Case int.indd 14

Excerpt from The Official Residents Guide to Moon Base Alpha,

WELCOME TO MOON BASE ALPHA!

4P Space Case int.indd 3

Earth year 2041

Lets get something straight, right off the bat:

4P Space Case int.indd 5

On Moon Base Alpha, to be exact.

4P Space Case int.indd 6

4P Space Case int.indd 7

Although the scopes are thirteen thousand feet up, theyre

4P Space Case int.indd 8

Like our lives there would be nonstop thrills and amazement.

4P Space Case int.indd 9

4P Space Case int.indd 10

4P Space Case int.indd 11

alike. Once youve irradiated, thermostabilized, dehydrated,

4P Space Case int.indd 12

4P Space Case int.indd 13

SlimScreen informed me that the separator had failed and

4P Space Case int.indd 14

own best guinea pig. He had done three extended tours on

4P Space Case int.indd 15

out of the stall and suddenly reveal my presence. I couldnt

4P Space Case int.indd 16

4P Space Case int.indd 17

just snorted a whole tank of laughing gas. I listened to it fade

4P Space Case int.indd 18

Ken Jennings Junior Genius

About Ken Jennings

About the author

LIT TLE SIMON

At the beginning of every Junior Genius book, we

With all my fellow Junior Geniuses, I

Well, after todays lesson, I never want to hear you

This is the Sun.

Wait, thats not right. Why would the Sun need to

Ken Jennings Junior Genius Guides

When you look at the Sunwait, hold on. Public

The light is so intense it can literally cook the retinas

Okay. When you briefly glance at

But were going to travel back in time even further:

possibly due to the shock wave