Space Crab

By Morgan Rickards

By a nine-year-old, for nine-year-olds (and younger kids), this is a frenetic tale of hapless crabs launched (both literally and metaphorically) into space to support a penguin's scheme to overthrow the rulers of Mars. A chaotic ride of puns, crabs, other animals, crazy names, a surprising number of food references, a plant pot-based prison break, and a villainous velociraptor defeated largely by vegetables.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morgan Rickards
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201724962

Book preview

Copyright Morgan Rickards 2022.

Cover image:

Makes use of fsdfgasdf’s brushed metal texture under a cc-by license.

An Introductory Note

Space Crab is wholly the work of a nine-year-old, and therefore best enjoyed by children of a similar age (and a similar appreciation for whacky crabs and jokes about vegetables) or younger. It was born as a lockdown project, an impromptu challenge, something more fun than remote school work, and spiralled into a surprisingly long, careful piece of work (about whacky crabs and vegetables) of which he’s very proud.

He hopes people enjoy it – hey, it’s about crabs, after all. To keep the story to himself would be… shellfish.

Part 1 - Galaxy Prison

A long time ago in a galaxy very, very close (so close, it’s our galaxy), a crab was trying to get into space.

Boss, how are we supposed to build a Scuttler to get to space when we’re only crabs? said Six-Foot.

By using our special powers, said Boss Crab.

We need to get materials, said Stab Crab, who didn’t know what special powers he meant.

Right, first material is, uhm… magma from Yellowstone National Park, USA, where Cook used to live, replied Boss Crab.

I’m not going into a volcano. Anyway, why we do we even need to get hot, flaming magma? asked No-Shell.

So then we can make a self-destruct, answered Boss Crab. Right, next material. Hmm, let me just check my list. Got it - orange paint.

Why do we need orange paint? said all of the savage crabs.

We need orange paint so we can paint the crab-shaped metal, which reminds me - that’s the last ingredient except for a charger and some wires and buttons and levers.

Why do we need buttons? said Six-Foot, who as