HOW WILD WOULD IT BE TO BUILD ON AN EIGHTH CONTINENT? Rick and Evie Lane believe that the eighth continent will be theirs to rule forever. There’s just one problem: global rule-maker Winterpole won’t let anyone move there! Now, the Lane family must rush to create hospitals, homes, schools, and (shocker!) government buildings to prove that their continent is fit for human habitation. But the Lanes aren’t the only ones engaged in this race for space. Condo Corp secret CEO Vesuvia Piffle recognizes this as her opportunity to finally snag the eighth continent for herself. If she can knock down enough of the Lanes’ buildings and construct perfect, pink, plastic ones in her image, the eighth continent might just finally be hers to make all sugary sweet and spider-free. The Lanes will need to use every resource at their disposal to ensure that their precious eighth continent remains as natural—and wild—as they are. Just as it was born to be. BUILD IT - RUN IT - RULE IT  at 8thContinentBooks.com Praise for the 8TH CONTINENT series: "Fast-paced action, cool inventions and remarkable robots combine for an auspicious opener." -- Kirkus Reviews  "Good fun in the tradition of M. T. Anderson’s Pals in Peril series." -- Booklist "Zippy pace and original premise." -- School Library Journal “Kids will especially enjoy George’s outlandish robotic and vehicular inventions . . . in this fun yet thought-provoking story.” -- Publishers Weekly "This is a delightful start to the adventures of the Lane family, with their flying tree and their mechanical bird tutor.  Evie and Rick and their brilliant if eccentric parents are wonderfully vivid, and the villains who try to impede them in their quest to save the Earth, equally memorable.  It's all in the great tradition of adventure fiction for young readers, running back through Akiko and Freddy the Pig all the way to Tom Sawyer." --Kim Stanley Robinson, author of  Red Mars Matt London (themattlondon.com) is a writer, video game designer, university instructor, and avid recycler who has published short fiction and articles about movies, TV, video games, and other nerdy stuff. Matt is a graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop and studied computers, cameras, rockets, and robots at New York University. When not investigating lost civilizations, Matt explores the mysterious island where he lives — Manhattan. Follow Matt on Twitter @themattlondon and build your own eighth continent at 8thContinentBooks.com! Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader. ISBN: 978-0-698-14687-7 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Rick Lane watched the sky. Something in his quick-thinking, hyper-developed brain knew—today was going to be a big day. All around him, workers bustled about his family’s settlement, carting wheelbarrows full of dirt and rubble. Four-legged robots hauled sheet metal on their backs. When the wind picked up, Rick tasted the slightly salty ocean air that felt so familiar to his new home, the eighth continent. The boy stood at the end of his block, where there was an empty and expectant circle of dirt. In the middle of the circle was a deep hole, a foundation, but Rick’s eyes never left the cerulean expanse above his head. He considered each cloud, waiting for The Big Day to begin. “Rick!” A warm, familiar voice called out to him. He turned and saw his mother walking toward him. Beside her was the seven-foot-tall crow 2-Tor, Rick’s formerly-a-robot friend and protector, who, on a recent adventure, had been transformed into a real-life talking bird. Such had been the power of the Eden Compound, a chemical substance designed by Rick’s father that had also turned the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into this very land that Rick now loved. 2-Tor clacked his beak. “I say, Richard, you are looking quite ready to catch the worm this morning.” “I am, 2-Tor. I am!” Rick pumped his fists in the air, doing a victory dance like the fighters in the video game Crazy Combat when they defeated opponents. “It’s a big day! You know what’s happening today, right?” “Though my memory banks lack the efficiency of their formerly artificial intelligence, I do seem to recall a certain milestone scheduled for today.” “Is it the anniversary of when we cleaned up the stain?” asked Rick’s mother. She was almost right. In a few days it would be six months since Rick and his