Malfunction!! Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure by Linda Sue Park

Gurple's eyes opened, one by one by one. Her head swiveled as she clanked to her feet. PREEN! WHERE ARE YOU?

Robots Gurple and Preen have certainly suffered a major spacecraft disaster--crashed on a mystery planet with nothing in sight but boxes of crayons!

But their reactions could not be more different.

Gurple goes deep six. It's a catastrophe. In her anxiety she vents her anxiety by breaking crayons in half--with unexpected results. A blue-checked tablecloth appears! What is Gurple supposed to do with that!

"ZAP MY APPS! THE PODS! WE'RE DOOMED WITHOUT THEM!"

But the resourceful little robot Preen sets about restoring their spaceship with whatever is available. She tears the tablecloth into strips and starts tying the crayons into bundles. And when Gurple breaks a brown crayon in frustration and a flock of quails emerge, Preen puts them to work ferrying the crayon bundles to the wrecked spaceship. A broken green crayon becomes a lampshade, but...

Gurple finally freaks out when she breaks a white crayon and it turns into a roll of toilet paper!

ROBOTS DON'T GO TO THE BATHROOM! SHE SHOUTS.

And when a black crayon becomes a panda, Preen finds a way to use them all to jerry-rig a working spacecraft.

"NODES AND CODES!" CRIES GURPLE. "PLEASE LET THIS WORK!"

A cadre of crayoned kid commandoes appears to finish the job, and there is a successful liftoff. Mission accomplished! The Commander asks Preen how she made this ingenious repair.

“STEP BY STEP BY STEP!” SHE SAYS.

And whose hand is behind all this crayoned deep space drama?

The final page reveals the author of this fantastic space opera, a creative young girl in her bedroom, hopefully sky-gazing toward the full moon in her window, in the Newberry-winning author Linda Sue Park's latest picture book, Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure (Simon & Schuster, 2020). In a salute to the inventive mind, but also to the frugal "use what you've got" wisdom, this fanciful toy story is a treat for young space robot fans. With the noted Debbie Ridpath Ohi's playful and inspired illustrations along for the flight, it's a storybook space voyage to remember. A clever nod to imagination and ingenuity." says Booklist.