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- Herausgeber: Little Tiger Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: My Babysitter is a Robot
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
When Grandma creates a robot babysitter for twins Jake and Jess, chaos ensues!Jess and Jake love having a robot babysitter, but lately Robin's been malfunctioning more and more often... And the only person who can help – their inventor Grandma who created Robin – has disappeared. It's time for the twins take matters into their own hands...The third book in a brilliantly funny series, perfect for fans of David Solomons, RUNAWAY ROBOT, THE NOTHING TO SEE HERE HOTEL and KID NORMAL.
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For my grandmas Eileen and Mavis. Neither of whom is or was a robot … as far as I know! – DC
To Benji, Emma and William with much love x – CE
Contents
CHAPTER 1
HAIRY ELEPHANTS LIKE LAZY ORANGES
“A ROBOT? No way!” The shout came from the group huddled round Brett Burton.
Me and Ali looked at each other. “Uh-oh!” he said as we rushed over.
We were supposed to be rehearsing the school play, Little Red Riding Hood – TheMusical! Ms Sternwood had written all the songs herself. Unfortunately, the school orchestra (two glockenspiels, three recorders, a tambourine and a triangle) was struggling to bring her musical vision to life. Our head 2teacher had spent the last five minutes trying to explain that it might sound better if they could at least start and finish the song at the same time … and maybe hit a few of the right notes on the way.
The rest of us had been told to learn our lines, but Brett had got his phone out. He was always finding videos of cats or people doing stupid stuff, but this was different.
The clip showed some glitzy event with a bunch of minor celebrities on a roof terrace somewhere hot. There were fans watching from behind a barrier. Then one of them ducked under it and ran over to get a selfie with the stars. The guy had gone barely three steps when a huge bodyguard grabbed him. But, rather than taking the man back to the crowd, the guard lifted him into the air … then threw him off the roof!
Everyone gasped and Brett laughed. “Don’t worry! He landed in the swimming pool,” he said. “But check this out.” 3
The bodyguard had noticed he was being filmed and started walking towards the camera, shouting in a language we didn’t understand.
Whoever was filming clearly decided it was time to leave because the picture started jumping around all over the place. But, before the screen went black, the final image was a close-up of the bodyguard’s face.
I swallowed.
The man’s eyes were glowing bright blue.
“See?” said Brett. “ROBOT!” 4
Sanjit snorted. “It’s fake! They probably put the glow on afterwards!” But he didn’t sound sure.
“Do you think that was real?” I whispered to Ali as Brett put his phone away.
My friend shook his head. “Total fake! Real robots don’t have glowing blue eyes. We know THAT for a FACT!” He grinned and glanced to the back of the hall where Robin was operating the lights for the play.
Robin is our babysitter. He looks after me and my twin sister Jess while Mum and Dad are at work. Sometimes he helps out at school too. As well as doing the sound and lighting for the play, Ms Sternwood had asked him to be the narrator because he has such a lovely voice. In fact Robin sounds just like the posh actor bloke from the satnav Grandma used to make his voice processor.
I should probably explain.
Our grandma is an inventor and Robin IS 5actually a robot, but he looks and behaves so much like a real person that most people don’t even realize. Ali and my sister’s best friend, Ivana, are almost the only ones outside our family who know the truth. We need to keep it that way. Grandma’s worried that if people found out what Robin can do, someone could use the technology to make robots that were bad.
But what if somebody already had?
“Jake! Where’s your costume?” Ms Sternwood’s voice made me jump. “This is a dress rehearsal. Our costumes help us BECOME the character we’re playing! How do you expect to BE the rabbit if you’re not wearing your ears and fluffy tail?”
Thing is, I didn’t want to be the stupid rabbit – but our head teacher had insisted that everyone was involved. Ali had managed to get a job helping Robin with the lighting, but they wouldn’t let me near anything technical, so I’d 6been given the role of Third Rabbit.
Dry ice crept across the stage as Red Riding Hood sang and skipped through the cardboard forest to where my sister was waiting.
Jess was the Big Bad Wolf. She says the villain is always more fun to play than the goody-goody hero – especially when that person was Olivia, my sister’s arch-nemesis! In the previous scene Jess had eaten Grandma and was now sitting in bed dressed as the old lady. Third Rabbit’s big moment was approaching and I could feel the nerves crawling up the inside of my furry rabbit onesie.
When Olivia finally reached the end of her song, me and the First and Second Rabbits had to jump out and warn her about the wolf waiting in the cottage. It might not have been so bad if we could have just told her, but this was A MUSICAL, which meant there was a whole song-and-dance routine to get through 7first.
“All of a sudden,” said Robin, his voice booming through the speakers, “Little Red Riding Hood came upon a clearing in the forest. It was full of woodland animals playing in the sunshine.”
The orchestra stumbled into the opening bars of the song as First Rabbit hopped out and sang, “Don’t go to the cottage, Red!”
Rabbit number two joined in with, “There’s danger up ahead!”
Then, “Don’t go to the cottage, Red!” they sang together.
Which was my cue.
I only had one line in the entire play. I’d been over it a million times. But when I opened my mouth…
It was gone!
My brain was empty. A wordless void.
Everyone was waiting – Olivia glaring at me like she wished her eyes were lasers. 8
Then Robin’s voice sliced through the silence. “Hairy elephants like lazy oranges,” he said.
For a moment I wondered if that was the line I was supposed to sing. I saw Ms Sternwood leafing through the script, trying to find the part with elephants…
“Choose a name, you orang-utan umbrella,” said Robin and somebody laughed.
I was grateful that attention had been taken off me – until I realized what was happening. There was something wrong with our robot. He was malfunctioning.
In school!
IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!
CHAPTER 2
WHAT BIG EARS YOU’VE GOT
“That was too close,” I said as we walked out of school later.
“I can’t believe Ms Sternwood believed Robin just picked up the wrong script!” My sister shook her head.
“I’m terribly sorry,” said the robot. “I don’t know what came over me!”
“Don’t worry,” I told him. “We’ll get Grandma to give you a full check-up.”
We went home to dump our bags and collect Digby, our dog. 10
“You’re not actually going to use that, are you?” Jess pointed to the baby-carrier Robin was strapping to his chest.
Ever since our old teacher, Mrs Badoe, had come into school with her baby in a sling, Robin had wanted one for the dog. I blamed Grandma. When she programmed Robin with information about our family, she forgot to mention that Digby WAS A DOG. As a result, the robot treated him as if he was our exceptionally hairy baby brother. Digby didn’t seem to mind.
The bus to Grandma’s was busy. Jess found a seat near the back so nobody would know she was with us. I sat across the aisle from our robot.
The old man in the seat next to Robin spotted Digby in the baby-carrier. He leaned 11over and waggled a finger at the dog. “That’s a bonny little one you’ve got there. Good head of hair! What is it? Boy or girl? I can never tell at that age.”
“Hairy elephants like lazy oranges,” said Robin and my heart kicked.
“Sorry? I didn’t quite catch that.”
“Choose a name, you orang-utan umbrella!” said the robot.
12“Don’t worry,” I told the man. “He’s talking to me.” I gave what I hoped was a smile that said no need to be alarmed – nothing to see here! but I could feel the panic rising in my chest. I had to shut Robin up before too many people noticed.
“Huge ears are radical, marmalade elf,” said the robot, which was kind of embarrassing because the guy did have big ears.
The old man frowned. “Is he all right?”
“Half-eaten lemon pie!” Robin announced to everyone on the bus.
A teenager standing by the stairs was laughing and filming the whole thing on his phone.
“Hairy elephants!” said Robin and more people began to laugh.
Jess was mouthing at me to DO SOMETHING, but it was like being back onstage – my mind was blank. I just sat there. Frozen.
The bell dinged to announce the next 13stop and the old man scrambled to his feet, stumbling in his hurry to get away from the strange, shouty man with the hairy baby.
Jess moved down and slipped into the empty seat, then pretended to fuss over thebaby
