Robo-Dodo Rumble Read online

  the

  Didi Dodo

  FUTURE SPY

  series

  Book One: Recipe for Disaster

  Book Two: Robo-Dodo Rumble

  Book Three: Double-O Dodo

  the

  Inspector

  Flytrap

  series

  Book One: Inspector Flytrap

  Book Two: Inspector Flytrap in The President’s Mane Is Missing

  Book Three: Inspector Flytrap in The Goat Who Chewed Too Much

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4197-3688-9

  eISBN 978-1-68335-631-8

  Text copyright © 2019 Tom Angleberger

  Illustrations copyright © 2019 Jared Chapman

  Book design by Steph Stilwell

  Published in 2019 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

  Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [email protected] or the address below.

  Amulet Books® is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

  ABRAMS The Art of Books

  195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007

  abramsbooks.com

  To Cynthia Leitich Smith

  —T. A.

  CONTENTS

  Opening

  PART 1

  The Price Is Wrong

  PART 2

  Interview with a Robo-Dodo

  PART 3

  The Monster from Beneath the Sea

  GRAND FINALE

  That’s a Lot of Cookies

  Epilogue

  Opening

  My phone rang.

  “Hello, this is Koko Dodo’s Cookie Shop. Koko Dodo speaking! What are you telling me?” I said.

  “How-dee, neigh-bor,” said a robot voice. “Would you like to—”

  “Wait just a minute!” I interrupted. “Is this one of those robocalls?”

  “What is a ro-bo-call?” asked the robot voice.

  “You know! One of those awful calls where you answer the phone and all you hear is a recording and the recording wants to sell you something.”

  “This is not a re-cor-ding,” said the robot voice.

  “But you sound a lot like a robot!”

  “I AM a ro-bot.”

  “Oh, well that explains it,” I said. “Sorry if I was rude. I just hate those calls that try to sell you something. So . . . What do you want?”

  “I want to sell you some-thing,” said the robot. “I am sell-ing coo-kies.”

  “Cookies? What are you telling me about cookies? I am Koko Dodo! I bake my own cookies in my own cookie shop! Of course I do not want to buy any cookies!”

  “O-kay, I will find some-one else to buy my coo-kies. Good-bye, neigh-bor.”

  The robot hung up.

  I went back to baking my own cookies, but I kept wondering: Why did the robot keep calling me “neighbor”?

  PART 1

  The Price Is Wrong

  Chapter 1

  It was a slow morning at the cookie shop.

  I had been baking for hours with my helper, the Queen. We had made many, many cookies.

  But we did not have many, many customers.

  In fact, we did not have ANY customers.

  “Where are all the customers, Your Majesty?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, Koko,” said the Queen. “Even the three baby chicks haven’t been here!”

  “Well, at least we won’t have to clean the baby chick poop off the chairs today,” I said. “But what are we going to do with all these uneaten cookies? I’ll go out of business this way!”

  “Wait,” said the Queen. “Someone’s coming!”

  I opened the door.

  “Hello and welcome to—”

  “Look out!” said Didi Dodo, who was the someone who was coming. And boy was she coming fast!

  She zoomed through the door on her roller skates and crashed into the counter. Unsold cookies went everywhere!

  The Queen was hit on the head by a double-chocolate chunk cookie! She would have been knocked out if her cardboard crown hadn’t protected her.

  “Sorry about the cookies,” said Didi Dodo.

  “Don’t be worrying about it!” I said. “No one was buying them. You’re the first customer we’ve had all day!”

  “Sorry, Koko,” said Didi. “I didn’t come to buy cookies. I came because . . .”

  Didi Dodo sprang to her feet—actually, to her wheels—and waved one wing in the air.

  She held her beak high.

  Her eyes sparkled.

  “I, Didi Dodo, Future Spy, have a daring plan!” she shouted.

  “I need customers, not a daring plan!”

  “But my daring plan is to get your customers back!”

  “Get them back from where?” I asked.

  “From there!” she said and pointed her wing out the window and across the street.

  Chapter 2

  I looked out the window and saw a giant dodo across the street!

  “There’s a giant dodo across the street!” I yelled.

  “No,” said Didi Dodo. “There’s a giant Robo-Dodo across the street!”

  “What are you telling me about a Robo-Dodo?” I yelled. “What is a Robo-Dodo?”

  “A Robo-Dodo is a very large robot that is shaped like a dodo and sells cheap cookies.”

  “CHEAP COOKIES?!” I screamed. “No wonder I lost all my customers! How cheap are they?”

  Just then, an elephant wearing a top hat ran past the store. His mouth was full, and cookie crumbs were falling out.

  Didi opened the door and said, “Excuse me, how much did those cookies cost?”

  “A penny,” said the elephant wearing a top hat.

  “COOKIES FOR A PENNY EACH?!” I yelled.

  “No,” said the elephant. “All the cookies you can eat for one penny!”

  “ALL THE COOKIES YOU CAN EAT FOR ONE PENNY?! I AM RUINED! I WILL HAVE TO CLOSE MY SHOP!”

  “Just a second!” demanded the Queen. “How do the cookies taste?”

  “Oh, they’re terrible,” said the elephant. “Like chewing moldy bricks.”

  “What are you telling me with the moldy bricks?” I asked. “Wouldn’t you rather have one of my delicious, fresh peanut butter yumyums?”

  “How much?” asked the elephant.

  “Only $1.59,” I said.

  “What a rip-off!” yelled the elephant. “I can eat robot cookies for 159 days for that much! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back for more!”

  The elephant stampeded across the street.

  “Didi Dodo,” I said.

  “Yes, Koko Dodo?” she said, her eye already sparkling.

  “I need a daring plan.”

  “I have one!” she shouted.

  Chapter 3

  “The first part of my plan,” said Didi, “is for you to open this present I got you for National Cookie Day.”

  She handed me a crumpled and smooshed present.

  “Wow! Thanks!” I said. “But National Cookie Day isn’t until tomorrow.
Should I wait?”

  “No,” said Didi. “You’re going to need them right away.”

  I opened the box. It was a pair of roller skates! Just like the ones Didi always wears.

  “Put them on!” she said.

  “I do love to skate,” I said. “But this hardly seems like the right time to go to the roller rink!”

  “We’re not going to the roller rink,” Didi replied. “We’re going to Gertrude’s Used Ski Jumps.”

  “What are you telling me about a ski jump?”

  “All part of my Daring Plan,” said Didi.

  “Any plan that involves roller skates AND a ski jump is TOO DARING! Don’t you have a not-so-daring plan?”

  “Well,” she said, “you could get a paintbrush and start painting a big GOING OUT OF BUSINESS sign.”

  I laced up my new roller skates.

  We skated down the street to Gertrude’s Used Ski Jumps.

  “Hey, Gertrude,” said Didi, “do you mind if we use the big jump?”

  “Help yourself,” said Gertrude. “I’ve got to go.” She ran past us with a penny clinched in her hoof!

  We took an elevator to the top of the biggest ski jump.

  “I don’t like elevators, heights, or ski jumps,” I said. “I’ve changed my mind.”

  “Too late,” said Didi.

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me over the edge of the ramp.

  Interlude

  We landed on top of the Robo-Dodo.

  Well, actually, I landed on top of the Robo-Dodo. Didi Dodo landed on top of me.

  “Yowch!” I said.

  “Sorry,” said Didi Dodo.

  “Hi!” said the three baby chicks.

  “Three baby chicks,” I said. “What on earth are you doing way up here?”

  “Pooping,” said the three baby chicks.

  “What are you telling me with the pooping?” I asked. “Why would you do that up here?”

  “It’s a natural part of the digestive system,” said the first chick.

  “But why would you do that up here?” Didi asked.

  “We couldn’t find any chairs, so we thought we’d poop on top of this statue,” said the second chick.

  “Birds love to poop on statues,” said the third chick.

  “But this isn’t a statue! It’s a robot that makes cookies,” explained Didi Dodo.

  “Uh-oh,” said the chicks. “I hope the robot doesn’t get mad at us for pooping on it.”

  Just then, the huge head of the Robo-Dodo turned toward us.

  Its eyes lit up.

  “Uh-oh,” said the chicks. “It’s mad at us.”

  BZZRAP!

  The eyes shot lasers at us!

  We all jumped! The lasers hit the spot where we had been standing! And then the spot where we had been standing was just a big hole!

  “We’ve got to get off this Robo-Dodo!” I yelled.

  “Not according to my daring plan,” said Didi Dodo.

  Her eyes started to light up. But so did the Robo-Dodo’s!

  “It’s going to fire again!” I yelled. “Just go ahead and tell us the daring plan already!”

  “We need to get IN this Robo-Dodo!”

  And she jumped into the hole!

  I heard the Robo-Dodo go BZZRAP again, so I grabbed the three baby chicks and jumped in after her.

  PART 2

  Interview with a Robo-Dodo

  Chapter 4

  We fell down through the hole into the insides of the Robo-Dodo and landed in something smelly and smooshy.

  “Uh-oh,” said the chicks.

  “We’ve landed in a giant bowl of instant cookie mix!” I yelled.

  “This is where the Robo-Dodo makes its cookies!” Didi yelled back.

  “We want to eat cookies,” said the chicks. “Not BE cookies! Get us out of here!”

  Didi and I tried, but the walls of the giant bowl were too slippery and too steep.

  “I hope you have a daring plan to get us out before the Robo-Dodo adds the eggs and butter,” I told Didi.

  She held her beak up high, she waved her wing, she—

  “Too late!” squawked the baby chicks.

  Giant hoses started spraying us with raw eggs and melted butter.

  “This is disgusting,” said Didi.

  “I’ll say,” I said. “These are NOT fresh ingredients! It’s no wonder the cookies taste so bad!”

  “The cookies are going to taste like US if we don’t get out of here,” said Didi. “Look!”

  I was afraid to look, so I closed my eyes.

  But I couldn’t close my ears.

  I heard a scary metal whirring sound!

  It could only be one thing . . . a giant robo-mixer!

  “Is it a giant robo-mixer?”

  “Yes!” said the baby chicks.

  “Does it have big scary mixing blades?”

  “Yes!” said the baby chicks.

  “Are we going to get chopped up into little pieces?”

  “Yes!” said the baby chicks.

  “NO!” said Didi Dodo. “Because I have a daring plan!”

  She lifted her beak, waved her wing, made her eyes sparkle, and then jumped over the blade and grabbed on to the metal thingy that the blades are on. You know, the straight part that connects to the motor and goes around really really really fast? That part.

  “Hurry, Koko!” yelled Didi, who was now spinning around really really really fast, too.

  “Hold on, baby chicks!” I yelled, and I flapped, floundered, and flung myself over the blade just in time.

  I tried to grab on to the metal thingy, but I missed and grabbed on to one of Didi’s roller skates instead.

  “Hold on, Koko!”

  “What are you telling me with the hold on! Of course I am holding on!” I shouted, spinning around really really really fast.

  “Good,” she yelled, “because I am going to let go!”

  “What are you telling me with the—AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  Chapter 5

  When Didi let go, we were all flung out of the bowl.

  “AAAAAAH!”

  We all screamed. When we saw where we were headed, we kept screaming and got louder!

  “AAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  We were headed for a conveyor belt that was moving thousands and thousands of cookies through a really long oven!

  “Oh no!” yelled the baby chicks.

  “We’re going to get baked!” I yelled.

  “Not if we speed skate!” yelled Didi.

  I had to do a double somersault with a twist in midair, but I was able to land on my wheels.

  Didi was able to land on me.

  The chicks were squished in between.

  I zigged and zagged to dodge all the cookies and zoomed right through the oven and out the other side.

  All the cookies went down into a big funnel, but I jumped over that, and we landed near some computers and filing cabinets.

  We were toasted, but not roasted.

  “That plan was not just daring; it was charring!” I said.

  “But it worked!” said Didi. “The oven even burned off all that gooey raw egg and butter.”

  “Yes, it was a ver-y good plan,” said a robot voice. “But I have a bet-ter one.”

  “Uh-oh,” said the baby chicks.

  “Who said that?” gasped Didi.

  “We did,” said the baby chicks.

  “No, I meant the part before that.”

  “That was me,” said a robot voice.

  “Who are you?” demanded Didi.

  “I am the e-lec-tric brain of Ro-bo Do-do,” said Robo-Dodo through a speaker. “Who are you?”

  “I am Didi Dodo, Future Spy!”

  “Does that mean you are from the fu-ture?” asked the electric brain. “Or does it mean you have lots of fu-tur-is-tic gadg-ets and spy gear?”

  “No, it means that I will be a spy someday in the future.”

  “O-K,” said Robo-Dodo. “And who are the small birds poo-ping o
n my stuff?”

  “Those are the baby chicks,” I said.

  “And who are you?” asked Robo-Dodo.

  “I am Koko Dodo!”

  “Oh, you are the one I want to put out of biz-ness.”

  And then it did a robot laugh.

  “Ha . . . Ha . . . Ha . . . Ha . . .”

  Chapter 6

  I was mad!

  “What are you telling me? Do you mean you’re ruining my business on purpose?”

  “Of course! I am a ro-bot. We on-ly do things on pur-pose.”

  “But why are you doing it?”

  “That part of my plan is a se-cret!”

  And then it did another robot laugh.

  “Ha . . . Ha . . . Ha . . . Ha . . .”

  Now I was REALLY mad!

  I started yelling. I wanted to yell some bad words, but I don’t know any. So I made some up.

  “Those words are not in my da-ta-bank,” said Robo-Dodo. “Give me a second to add them.”

  “Uh . . . OK,” I said.

  “Pssst,” whispered Didi. She waved her wing just a little. She raised her beak just a little. Her eyes sparkled just a little.

  I knew she had a daring plan, but I didn’t want Robo-Dodo to know she had a daring plan.

  “You are right,” she told Robo-Dodo. “Your secret plan is much better than my daring plan. So, we’ll just go now, OK?”

  “Uh . . . OK . . .” said Robo-Dodo.

  Didi started to skate back the way we had come.

  “No! Not that way!” said Robo-Dodo. “Use the mee-ga wee-ga door!”

  A robo-hand pointed to a door marked EXIT.

  The chicks jumped on my back. We skated through the door and came out of Robo-Dodo’s . . . uh . . . well, I think I better just say “exit,” OK? OK? Enough! Mind your own business!

  Didi and I climbed down Robo-Dodo’s metal tail feathers and ended in the street in front of my store. There were cookie customers everywhere . . . except in my store! They were all standing in line to buy Robo-Dodo’s cookies!

  “Why did we just leave?” I asked Didi. “I thought you were going to find out what Robo-Dodo’s secret plan was?”

  “I did!” shouted Didi. “While you were yelling at it, I found this in a filing cabinet.”