My Babysitter is a Robot Read online

  “With Robin, I expect.”

  Robin is probably Grandma’s most successful invention. She built him to look after me and Jess while Mum and Dad were at work. He looks so much like a real person, most people don’t even realize he’s a robot.

  The judges on Buy It or Bin It? were about to announce their decision when we heard an ominous crash from the direction of the kitchen.

  “I’ll go!” I said quickly. Mum and Dad quite like having a robot around, but Robin has a habit of getting into trouble. They got rid of him once before – I didn’t want them to have a reason to do it again.

  I made sure to close the door behind me.

  “Is that YOU making all that noise?” My sister was standing at the bottom of the stairs, scowling. It’s her favourite facial expression. “Have you seen Digby?”

  “I think he’s in there … with Robin.” I nodded towards the kitchen.

  “So what are you waiting for?” Jess is always telling me what to do – like she’s my big sister – when in fact we’re twins, so exactly the same age.

  “Why don’t you go in?” I said.

  “You’re closest!”

  I sighed and opened the door.

  The kitchen was unrecognizable. It felt as though you were walking into a jungle made from Christmas paper, dangling like multi-coloured vines from the ceiling.

  I was barely over the threshold when something lurched at me from the undergrowth. It was like a giant spider, all spindly limbs and quick, jerky movements. One of its arms ended with a pair of shining blades that snipped the air in front of my face.

  I ducked, narrowly avoiding an unscheduled haircut, then stumbled into a transparent web of sticky tape.

  The creature pounced.

  In seconds I was wrapped in a Christmas cocoon, unable to move.

  “Robin!” I shouted. “It’s ME!”

  “Master Just Jake! Oh, my!” The robot apologized and started to cut me free. “You stepped into my production line. I thought you were a gift that needed wrapping!”

  “You do know Christmas is over, right?” said Jess.

  “But your mother was disappointed when your grandma’s RAPID-WRAP-IT! machine didn’t work,” said the robot. “I thought I would see if I could improve on it.”

  “I don’t think Mum wanted you to gift wrap the kitchen though,” I said.

  Robin stroked his beard, a sign he was thinking. “My procedure is still in the development stage. I repeat a task and refine the process until it runs smoothly.”

  “It’s a good job you’ve got a whole year until next Christmas,” said Jess. “I’d say this process needs a lot of refining!”

  I looked around at the web of tape stretching across the kitchen, bits of wrapping caught up in it like festive flies. “By the way, have you seen Digby? I thought he was with you.”

  “Digby? He’s just…” Robin turned towards the pile of presents. “Oh, dear!”

  We’d rescued Digby and were trying to unwrap the kitchen when the doorbell rang.

  Dad’s footsteps thumped along the hall, then we heard our neighbour’s voice.

  Mr Burton reminds me of a vampire. He has a pointy nose and grey bushy eyebrows like two hairy caterpillars clinging to his forehead.

  We watched through a crack in the door as he handed Dad a note. “It’s a bill,” he said. “For the damage your robot caused to my house when it malfunctioned.”

  Me and Jess exchanged a look. We knew a lot more about Robin’s malfunction than anybody realized – but that’s another story.

  “This seems expensive!” said Dad.

  “Removing chocolate muffin from a cream carpet is not easy,” said Mr Burton. “Besides, there was the leaf-blower.” He shuddered.

  Even I’d been surprised how powerful that had turned out to be.

  “I must go and apologize,” said Robin. “Your father should not have to pay for damage I caused.”

  “NO! Don’t go out there!” I put my body between Robin and the door. “It’s better if Mr Burton doesn’t know you’re still here.”

  Meanwhile, Dad and the old man were still talking.

  “There may be an alternative solution,” said Mr Burton. “If the robot was to come and work for me, he could repair the damage himself – at no cost to you.”

  “That proposal is a very logical solution,” said Robin. “I wish to accept.”

  “NO!” said Jess. “Have you forgotten what happened last time?”

  “Mr Burton treated you like a slave!” I reminded him. “He made you cut his toenails!”

  But the robot wasn’t listening. He made another lunge towards the door, so Jess jumped on his back while Digby took hold of a trouser leg in his teeth. But Robin is surprisingly strong, and even the three of us together couldn’t stop him.

  Dad looked surprised when the kitchen door flew open and Robin burst into the hallway with me, Jess, and Digby still clinging on.

  “I wondered where you lot were,” he said.

  “Where’s Mr Burton?” said Jess.

  “He left.” Dad raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing you were listening?”

  “You’re not going to make Robin go and work for him are you?” I said.

  “I told him I needed to talk it over with your mum.”

  “It is right that I should repair the damage I caused,” said Robin.

  “Well … hopefully it won’t come to that.” Dad smiled. “Now, I don’t suppose there are any mince pies left are there?” He moved towards the kitchen but Jess jumped in the way.

  “I’ll get you one! Why don’t you go and sit down? You don’t want to miss the end of Buy It or Bin It? do you.”

  Dad nodded. “Good point! Thanks, love!”

  “That was close,” said Jess when he’d gone. “Jake, you help Robin clear up this mess while I keep Mum and Dad distracted with mince pies.”

  Normally I would have argued, but I was too busy thinking that Mr Burton would be back, and it was going to take a lot more than mince pies to keep him distracted.

  Writing a story is a solitary task, but turning that story into a book requires a whole team of people. I would like to thank everyone involved in producing the book you are holding.

  To Ruth and the fantastic team at Stripes and Little Tiger, thanks for inviting me to write a story about a robot babysitter – especially Rachel Boden, who had the idea to create a robot to babysit the twins, and to Mattie for helping me get the resulting chaos down on paper! Rachel – we hope you’re happy with the way it turned out!

  For me, stories are all about the characters, so special thanks to Cata for bringing the people in this story to life with her wonderful illustrations. Respect and gratitude to Pip and her team for turning our collection of words and pictures into a proper book!

  To my agent Jenny Savill, appreciation for her continued support and encouragement, and for getting me the gig! Love and thanks to my family for putting up with me and my random, and often bizarre questions, such as: “what do you think a robot would do if…?” Extra thanks to Dylan for the gaming advice!

  Finally, a special mention for all the librarians, teachers, booksellers and parents out there – thanks for all the work you do bringing books to readers – without a reader, a story is just words on a page. So thank YOU for reading this book. I hope you enjoy it and many more in the future. Hey – why not try writing or drawing one of your own? We ALL have a story to tell…

  Dave Cousins, March 2019

  STRIPES PUBLISHING LIMITED

  An imprint of The Little Tiger Group

  1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road,

  London SW6 6AW

  First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing Limited in 2019.

  Text copyright © Dave Cousins, 2019

  Illustrations copyright © Catalina Echeverri, 2019

  eISBN: 978–1–78895–139–5

  The right of Dave Cousins and Catalina Echeverri to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respe
ctively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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