Robot Rebellion

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Chapter 1: A Visitor at Night Chapter 2: Ms. Ruiz Has a Secret Chapter 3: Help? or Not… Chapter 4: Sister Trouble Chapter 5: A Not-So-Perfect Routine Chapter 6: Help Is a Funny Thing Chapter 7: Fixing Chapter 8: Cory Competition Chapter 9: A Rebellious Robot! Chapter 10: Happy Birthday Author’s Note Acknowledgments About the Author and Illustrator Copyright Guide Cover Start of Content Title Page Dedication Author’s Note Acknowledgments About the Author and Illustrator Copyright III V VI VII VIII IX X 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 
 
 Astrid the Astronaut
 Robot Rebellion
 By Rie Neal
 Illustrated by Talitha Shipman
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 ALADDIN • An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Aladdin hardcover edition February 2023 • Text copyright © 2023 by Rie Neal • Illustrations copyright © 2023 by Talitha Shipman • Also available in an Aladdin paperback edition. • All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. • ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. • For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. • The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. • Book designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena • The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally. • Jacket designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena • Jacket illustration copyright © 2023 by Talitha Shipman • Library of Congress Control Number 2022942030 • ISBN 9781534481572 (hc) • ISBN 9781534481565 (pbk) • ISBN 9781534481589 (ebook)
 
 
 FOR CHRISTY, MY SISTER AND FRIEND
 —R. N.
 TO MY DAD, FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU GIVE
 —T. S.
 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER 1 A VISITOR AT NIGHT
 
 “Which episode was your favorite?” I asked my best friend, Hallie. I smoothed out my sleeping bag in front of the TV in the living room.
 She put a finger to her chin. “Hmm… the one where the kitten cadets played jump rope. They were in zero gravity. The rope got all tangled!”
 Hallie tossed her pillow onto a pile of blankets. She didn’t like sleeping bags. For sleepovers she just burrowed into blankets like a bunny.
 I grinned. “And then they bumped the controls. The spaceship was heading for a black hole!”
 “And AstroCat had to untangle them. Before they all got sucked in!”
 “But then Tabby-Droid saw that it was really just a blob of Rolfo’s blackberry jam on the screen. It wasn’t a black hole at all!”
 We burst into giggles. Season five of AstroCat had dropped a week ago. We’d each watched it once already. Now we were going to watch it together.
 I thought about Tabby-Droid. He could walk, talk, and fly a spaceship. In Shooting Stars, the after-school space-themed club I was in, we were about to start a new Astro Mission. Ms. Ruiz had said we’d be coding a real robot. Tabby-Droid was a robot. Would it act like him?
 I grabbed my TV necklace—a small box attached to a loop. It worked with my hearing aids to help me hear the TV better. Next to me, Hallie snuggled into her blankets. Using the remote, I turned on the show.
 Mom poked her head in. “You girls all set?”
 We nodded.
 “I’m heading to bed. Lights out by ten, okay?”
 “Okay, Mom.”
 “Okay, Mrs. Peterson.”
 Mom headed down the hall to her and Dad’s room. My big sister, Stella, was in the room we shared, probably texting her friends. Since I had a friend over, we got to sleep in the living room.
 AstroCat’s theme song started up. Slipping my TV necklace around my neck, I pressed the button on the box. But the song still sounded fuzzy, so I tried again. The theme song burst into the best part: “… AaaastroCat can save the day! She can always lead the way!…” The box still wasn’t working, but I knew the song.
 
 Hallie was singing along. Then I heard, “AAAAAAAAH!” She jumped up onto the couch.
 I paused the show. “What’s wrong?”
 Hallie pointed down the dark hallway. “You didn’t get a pet, did you?”
 I scrambled up beside her. “N-n-noooo.”
 Down the hall, something was creeping toward us. The whole condo was dark, except for the TV. It cast weird shadows as the thing got to the living room.
 “It’s coming closer!” Hallie hissed. “What if it’s a rat? Our neighbor has them. They have red beady eyes and—”
 “It’s not moving like a rat.” I squinted at it.
 The thing passed through a bit of light from a window.
 “But it’s furry like a rat!” Hallie whispered. “We should tell your parents.”
 “We’d have to go past it to get to them.”
 The thing stopped. Tiny red eyes blinked at the wall. Then it turned