Chapter 1: A Hero! 1 A Hero!
Geeger is a robot. A very, very hungry robot.

Geeger was built by a team of scientists, then sent to work in a town called Amblerville.

Geeger is good at his job. Really, really, really, really, REALLY good.

That’s because Geeger’s job is to EAT—and eating might be the thing that Geeger is best at.

But Geeger doesn’t eat just anything. No, no, no. Geeger eats all the food that the people of Amblerville don’t want to eat themselves.

Like slices of bread that are so moldy, they’re more green than bread-colored.

Like hunks of cheese so old and stinky, even flies won’t get anywhere near them.

Like pieces of fruit so rotten, it’s hard to tell what they even are. An apple? An orange? An avocado? A pear? Who knows! Geeger doesn’t. But you’d better believe it’s going in his belly!

And once it’s in there—once Geeger’s stomach is packed full of slimy, smelly, expired food—the robot plugs himself into his DIGEST-O-TRON 5000. The machine takes all the yucky stuff in Geeger’s guts and—vrroOoOM! Bzzt! WHOOSH!—turns it into electricity.

LOTS of electricity.

One time, a storm knocked out the power in all of Amblerville. But Geeger was able to plug himself in and provide electricity to the whole entire town until a repair crew could fix the problem. He was a hero! Even the town newspaper, the Amblerville Observer, said so. They wrote a front-page article all about what Geeger did!

But Geeger isn’t only good at his job. He’s good at plenty of other things too. Like being a student.



That’s right: Geeger goes to school! He attends Amblerville Elementary School, where he’s in Ms. Bork’s class.

Geeger LOVES school. Every day, he wakes up eager to get there. He just can’t wait to start learning and playing with his friends. There’s Tillie, Geeger’s best friend, plus a bunch of other fun and wonderful kids. Like Arjun and Olivia and Mac and Sidney and Suzie and Gabe and Roxy and Raul. And Fudge! That’s Ms. Bork’s class pet. A fuzzy, snuggly, adorable hamster.

But even though Geeger is excited to go to school every day, today he’s more excited than ever. Because today, Geeger isn’t even going to school. He and Ms. Bork and all his classmates—but not Fudge, unfortunately—are going on a…



FIELD TRIP!

Instead of walking to school, like Geeger normally does, a school bus is going to come pick him up. And on that school bus will be all Geeger’s classmates. They’ll drive from one end of Amblerville to the other, all the way to the Amblerville History Museum. There, Geeger and his friends will learn all about their town, pausing only to do the thing that Geeger might be best at: EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!

Except the cafeteria at the Amblerville History Museum doesn’t serve moldy, stale, expired, or rotten food. And so, before the bus shows up at his house, Geeger needs to pack himself a lunch.

Get to it, Geeger!