Free In the Desert : In the Desert (9780307496126) by Jan (ILT) J. C.; Gerardi Greenburg

“Erf!” said ant-sized Andrew Dubble. He was inside an empty bottle cap, bouncing into his cousin Judy.
    Their uncle Al had glued the bottle cap to the dashboard of his jeep. It made a safe perch for Andrew and Judy to see the Australian desert as Uncle Al drove through it. Uncle Al had even made them tiny sunglasses from a strip of dark plastic.
    “Get off of me, Bug-Brain,” said Judy, shoving Andrew away. “It’s
soooo
hot in here!”
    “Urp!” Andrew burped a big garlicky burp.
That pizza crumb sure tasted good
, he thought.
    “Disgusting boy!” said Judy.
    Uncle Al turned his eyes from the black ribbon of road and glanced in their direction. He adjusted the leaf he had arranged above their heads like a bug-sized umbrella to shade them from the sun.
    “It’s a rough trip through the desert, guys,” said Uncle Al. “The air conditioner isn’t working, so you’d better settle in for a long, hot, bumpy ride.”
    meep
… “Desert air hot, hot, hot!” came a squeaky voice from Andrew’s shirt pocket. “Desert sand even hotter. Can fry egg on desert sand.”
    It was Andrew’s little silver robot friend, Thudd. Uncle Al had invented him.
    “I’m getting hungry again,” said Andrew.
    Uncle Al smiled and mopped his face with a handkerchief. “Well, we won’t be stopping for sandy fried eggs,” he said. “It’s almost three o’clock. We’re supposed to meet up withmy partner, Winka, by eight p.m. She’s taking pictures of meteor showers deep in the desert. Winka has an idea about how to get you guys unshrunk.”
    Andrew’s latest invention, the Goa Constrictor, was supposed to shrink garbage. But the first time Andrew tried it, he ended up shrinking himself, and Judy and Thudd, too.
    Andrew nodded. “Winka helped us escape from the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago,” he said. “I’ll bet she can help us now.”
    “Before we get stepped on or swatted,” said Judy.
    The afternoon sun burned through the windshield.
This must be what it feels like to get cooked
, thought Andrew.
    The yellow sand stretched on forever. Here and there, patches of tall, prickly grass looked like sleeping herds of spiny porcupines. Sometimes a scraggly tree poked up like a skeleton. Now and then, a tumbleweedrolled across the road. There wasn’t a house or a sign of another human being anywhere.
    “The desert is like an empty planet,” said Andrew.
    Uncle Al shook his head. “It looks that way now,” he said. “But the desert is full of life. Lots of strange creatures are resting or hiding underground during the hottest hours. They’ll come out to hunt when the sun goes down.
    “The plants look pretty scraggly. But when rain comes, the desert looks like a flower garden. Some seeds and plants come to life almost instantly with just a little water.”
    “Humph,” said Judy. “I haven’t even seen a cactus.”
    Uncle Al nodded. “There are no native cactuses in the Australian desert,” he said.
    Oinga! Oinga! Oinga
! came a sound from the front of the jeep. The jeep was slowing down.
    Plunk … plunk … erk
…
    The jeep rolled to a stop. A ribbon of steam was curling from under the hood.
    Uncle Al shook his head. “I’ll find out what’s wrong,” he said. “And while I’m doing that, I want you guys to stay put. The desert is a dangerous place. Some of the most deadly animals in the world live here. And not all of them sleep during the day.”
    “Okey-dokey Unkie!” squeaked Thudd.
    Uncle Al got out of the jeep and opened the hood. A cloud of steam puffed out.
    “We’ve got a leak,” yelled Uncle Al from the front of the car. “I need to check underneath the jeep. This may take a while.”
    The heat was making Andrew sleepy. He rested his head against the edge of the bottle cap.
    Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew caught a glimpse of something moving. He turned to see a dark cloud whirling near the ground. It was spinning like a top and whipping up the sand. It was heading straight