Wired Wonder Woof (Astrokids) [Paperback]

Robert Elmer (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Series: Astrokids

When a slick-looking stranger offers Mir an amazing gift in return for his dog, Mir must learn to look at the heart instead of just at outward appearances. Especially when the stranger turns out to be a space pirate. Astrokids book 3.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Elmer is a graduate of St. Mary's College and Simpson College in San Francisco. He has written four series for middle-grade readers: ADVENTURES DOWN UNDER, THE YOUNG UNDERGROUND, PROMISE OF ZION, and ASTROKIDS. He got his writing start as a newspaper reporter but has written everything from magazine columns to radio and TV commercials. Now he writes full time from his home in rural northwest Washington state, where he lives with his wife Ronda, and their three busy teenagers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I Spy

“WOOOOF!”

Alarms went off in my headset.

Waa-waa-waa-waa!

The huge wet thing kept coming at me. It was all I could see on my right, and on my left, and ...

Phew! Dog breath!

I’d never been hit from all sides by 3-D slime-breath before. Have you?

Even worse, I felt myself spinning out of control when the big tongue sloshed me head on.

Up is down, down is up, spinning ...

Whoa! Dizzy yet?

All this time, I was hearing a funny voice. It wasn’t one of the other AstroKids who live on space station CLEO-7 with me. Not DeeBee or Buzz. Not Miko or Tag. This was a tinny voice, with an accent sort of like an English butler’s.

“Oh, I do say,” said the voice. “This is rather curious.”

Who had found me? I couldn’t tell. But I thought it was rather curious to be rolling across the rec-room floor, being chased by a slimy pink dog tongue.

“Quite a lively ball, isn’t it?” asked the voice.

I jerked my head, trying to fly away. Too late.

“Shall we launch this one?” came the voice again.

A moment later, the dog looked down at me, its head turned to the side. By that time, I was upside-down, caught under a paw.

Of course, I was only seeing this. It wasn’t really happening to me. It was all happening to my Remote-Float Eyeball Cam. I was just watching it through my viewer goggles.

Question 01:

Hold it, hold it! Goggles? Remote-Float ... Huh?

Answer 01:

We’re talking about the Remote-Float Eyeball Cam. Belongs to my dad, but I kind of, well ... borrow it sometimes. He uses it to keep track of repair work on the outside of CLEO-7. The Cam’s about the size of a human eyeball, and it floats anywhere, indoors or out. Even back in the corner of a room, where nobody notices.

I was really sitting in my dad’s lab on the other side of the station. (Not rolling on the floor in the CLEO-7 rec room.) From there, I steered the Eyeball Cam with the goggles.

Remote control.

Piece of cake.

Yeah, I could see everything the Remote-Float Eyeball Cam saw: Move my head left, it looked left. Move my head right ... you get the idea. Built-in sensors helped me smell and hear things, too.

Pretty cool, I’m thinking. No way the other AstroKids would ever see me. Not in a gazillion years.

One problem, though: I flew the Cam a little too low. You know, down to dog level.

No matter. I would still find out what I needed to know. No job is too hard for Mir Chekhov, Galactic Private Eye.

(By the way ... please pronounce my Russian name properly. It’s “MEER CHECK-off.” Try it again.... There. That’s better.)

Now, camera left. DeeBee was standing on her head in the middle of the rec room. She was watching Star Bores, episode 769, on a 3-D holo-screen. You know, Baah-BAAH, bah-buh-buh-BAAH-baah ...

DeeBee’s little brother, Tag, belched in time to the music.

“Have some manners, Tag,” DeeBee said.

Tag listens to everything his big sister tells him. He uncorked another one, then asked, “When’s that Galaxian pirate coming to the station?”

“Galaxian Trader,” his sister corrected him. “Not a pirate. And he’s supposed to arrive today.”

“I still bet he’s a pirate.”

“How do you know, Mister Expert on Pirates?” DeeBee didn’t sound as if she believed him. Of course, she never believed me about anything, either.

“You just have to see one.” Tag rubbed his hands together. “Galaxians have big black beards and a parrot on their shoulder and a patch over one eye, and most of them have just one leg and a blaster pistol tucked into their belts, and ...”

Camera right. Over in the corner, Miko and Buzz were playing a game of holo-chess. Miko didn’t say anything. Nothing new there. She hasn’t talked much since she came here as a stowaway on a transport shuttle. And Buzz looked as if he was thinking. I suppose the leader of the AstroKids has to do a lot of thinking.

“Has anybody seen Mir lately?” Tag asked. “He hasn’t been around for days.”

Aha! I thought. Now I’ll hear what they really think about me. Then I could figure out how to get them to like me—or at least how to make up for ... well, I had quite a few things to make up for.

“He’s been working for his dad a lot,” said Buzz.

That was true.

Tag still looked worried about something. “But he doesn’t know yet about M2—”

Ahh-OO-gahh! A warning buzzer sounded out in the hall. “Vessel landing in eleven point two minutes!”

The Galaxian? I wondered.

But I didn’t wonder too long. Because here came the tongue again! I almost gagged. The dog was licking me—that is, the Eyeball Cam. And let me tell you, dog breath is not pretty, up close. What did Tag feed this pooch for breakfast, anyway? Dead mice?

“Whatcha got there, Zero-G?” asked DeeBee.

Whoops! I was caught. Now I was in trouble.

Big trouble.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764223585
• ISBN-13: 978-0764223587
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,545,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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