Robot Junior HOW IT ALL STARTED         There was something very odd about the town of Clouded View.         The streets did not run in straight lines along the ground. They went straight up into the sky.         The postman had to deliver letters using a helicopter. He would throw them in through people's windows. Sometimes they would hit them on the head.         Some people got very cross at this, and would throw things back at the postman. Being a postman in Clouded View was very dangerous. You had to wear a helmet and carry a shield.         Right in the middle of the thickest cloud was a street called Wobbly Lane.         And right in the middle of Wobbly Lane, where you could see almost nothing at all, was house number 623.         And, on this particular day, there were two children on the staircase leading from the top of house 623 to the basement.         One was a girl and one was a boy. They were walking on tiptoe and they kept saying, 'Shhh,' to each other.         They were on a SECRET MISSION.         The girl and the boy reached the place they were going: the secret room at the bottom of house number 623.         They lived at the top of house number 623, with their father, an inventor. He was called Tin Can Ah-Li, because he often made unusual things out of ordinary things, like tin cans.         His two children were also very unusual.         The girl's name was Baby. Her dad had given her that name, because he thought it was a good description of what she was like when she was born.         But now she was a large 11-year-old, it didn't fit her so well.         Her brother's name was Baby Too, because he too had been born a baby.         This was rather confusing, so both children had nicknames. Baby called herself Aby. She hoped people would think her name was A.B., which could be short for something really nice, like Ali Baba.         Baby Two's name was shortened to B.T. This was sort of shortened more to Bee, then made longer to Beetle. He was seven.         Aby loved to sing. But she didn't know any songs. Her father did not have a radio or television or music player. So she used to sing her songs all on one note, with no words, like this: "Dooby-dooby-doo, dooby-doo, dooby-doo."         Beetle loved to play the drums. But he didn't have any. So he used to hit pans with a spoon. Tap, tap, t'tap-tap-tap.         When Aby or Beetle wanted to let the other one know something without Dad finding out, they would use hand signals.         Two thumbs up meant everything was fine.         Two thumbs down meant things looked bad.         One thumb up and one thumb down meant that things were not bad, but not good either.         When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Aby put two thumbs up. They had reached the room where their father kept his latest and greatest invention!         Aby turned the door handle.         'It isn't locked,' she said.         'Great,' said Beetle.         They opened the door and looked inside the room, but it was too dark to see anything. Beetle started feeling along the wall to find the light switch.         Click! He turned on the light.         'Wow!' said both children at once.         They gazed at the Super Whizzo Patent Automatic Jobot Maker. Tin Can Ah-Li had built a machine to make robot workers, which he called Jobots. This was because each Jobot did a different job.         The reason the children had sneaked down in the middle of the night was that they wanted to build their own Jobot - which could do their homework for them.         On one side of the room were bits of metal and wire, ready to be put into the machine. On the other side, a finished robot would come out.            Beetle said, 'Come on. Let's make one.'         Aby unrolled a piece of paper she was carrying. She had designed a tall robot with wavy metal hair. 'I want to make one like this,' she said.         Beetle started picked up bits of gear and putting them into the machine.         'Careful,' said Aby. 'You have to put in the right pieces in the right order.'         But then she saw some metal bits that looked interesting - gold and wavy. So she scooped them up. 'Let's put a few of these in,' she said.         Then she pressed the 'start' button, and the machine started to work. Its metal arms were soon hard at work. The noise was very loud.         Beetle said, 'I hope it doesn't wake Dad.'         Aby said, 'A bomb wouldn't wake Dad.'         But she crossed her fingers. She knew that if Dad caught them, they would be in very big trouble indeed.