A Spaceship Named Judy

By Denise Shea and Thomas Kingsley Troupe

When Kurby put out an ad for odd jobs, he thought it went out to the human ship, BeegMumma. Instead, a rescue mission request comes from across the galaxy! Will his decision to help put him, his friend Risk, and their spaceship Judy in danger? Or will it be the start of a great adventure?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781496591241

Denise Shea

Amit Tayal is a multi-award winning illustrator. Working for almost a decade Amit produced a wide range of illustration styles, using both digital and traditional methods.Amit has worked in various publications and animation studios.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

BUDDY UP

Whenever we do an off-ship field trip, we’re assigned a buddy. It’s easy for most of the kids in my class, but not me. Everyone else ends up with their friends, they go off and record new plant life together and bring it back to the rendezvous point for our teacher, Mrs. Andrix, to look at.

Mrs. Andrix? I asked and raised my hand.

Yes, Mr. Slophaus? Mrs. Andrix said.

She went around to pairs of students and handed them their ScanPad-DRs. Some of

the others laughed when they heard my last name. They always thought it sounded funny. Whatever.

I don’t really have . . . I started, and then trailed off. I didn’t want to say it, but I also didn’t want to wander around Gammerk 5 alone.

You need a buddy? asked Mrs. Andrix.

Ugh. There it is, I thought, but nodded like it didn’t bother me. I looked at some of my classmates. Jevin and Carbo were attached at the hip. It was well known in school that they shared one brain. They were fans of the same BlisterBall team and had the same haircut. Same everything. Bonai and Sulla Zue hooked their arms together and were inseparable. The girls whispered to each other. Apparently their secrets were super important.

At the edge of the group, a taller, skinnier kid studied the glowing clusters of plants. It was Risk Novason, the class brain. His mouth was always clamped shut, which was fine by me, because when it opened I usually had no idea what he was talking about.

Risk was alone, but he didn’t seem bothered by that one bit.

Buddy up with Risk, Mrs. Andrix said, barely looking up.

Risk was smarter than everyone on the field trip, including Mrs. Andrix. I didn’t consider myself smart — at least, not book smart. I was pretty good at coming up with ideas that usually got me into trouble.

I was a short, pudgy kid, while Risk was tall. My clothes never fit right; Risk’s flight suit never had a wrinkle.

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His dark hair was always neat and tidy, but my brown hair was usually pretty shaggy.

The two of us couldn’t have been more opposite.

I glanced around and confirmed that everyone really was with someone else. With no other choice, I walked across the gravelly ground toward Risk.

Hey, it’s your lucky day, I said.

Oh, Risk said, looking up from his ScanPad. How is my day lucky, exactly?

You’re stuck with me, I said and shrugged.

I see, Risk said, then turned back to the ScanPad. It’s Kurby, right?

The one and only, I said. I held my arms out as if to say, Here I am!

Should we get started? Risk asked.

I smiled. Most people complained when I was stuck with them, but not Risk. I don’t get the best scores in class, and my mouth tends to do its own thing. My mom called it being a smart aleck. I called it being funny.

Anyway, on this trip we were supposed to walk around a preset area on the small planet and explore. Our assignment was to find different types of plants, rocks, or whatever else we found. We scanned the junk with the ScanPad, logged it, and moved on. Pretty simple field trip, really.

We both checked the in-helmet level of the OxyGenerators we wore on our backs. A small part in our helmets allowed us to communicate with each other, and it displayed small