Digger loved to dig. He was always digging up junk, like broken toy parts and old tires. But today was a special day because today he dug up . . . a treasure map! “Ooh! This is where we live! It’s Scrap City! See? There’s Smelly Cove and the Stinky Canal.” “Cool! But what does that big, red X mean?” “That must be where a treasure is buried.” “Hey, let’s go searching for it, just like pirates!” “Aye, mateys! Let’s be pirates!” “ARRR!” The ScrapKins were eager to start their adventure. “Wait. We can’t have a pirate adventure without a pirate ship! What are we going to do?” “Let’s build what we need for our adventure. We are ScrapKins, and we like to scrapvent! We’re really good at inventing things out of junk and old scraps.” “We turn old scraps into something new. Scrapventing stuff is what we do!” “Yo-ho!” “Arrrr!” Swooper began to design the pirate ship in her notebook. When she was done, she held up her drawing. “To build the ship, we’re going to need one milk carton, one cardboard tube, one egg carton, one piece of notepaper, and two straws.” Digger thought they could use one more thing. He stuck his head into a nearby pile of scraps and pulled out a pair of underwear. “Blurglemdoof!” “Ewwww! Underwear isn’t on the list of things we need to build our pirate ship.” Once the ScrapKins found everything on the list, it was time to start building. Itcher used the milk carton and one straw to make the body of the ship. Digger used the tube to create the sail, and he used the other straw as the mast to hold it up. Swooper used the egg carton to make a crow’s nest. Finally, Wrecks turned the notepaper into a pirate flag. The ScrapKins were ready to set sail in their new pirate ship. “Arrr!” “We turned that junk into something new and useful. Now we can start our search for the treasure!” “Wait a minute. How are we going to sail down the Stinky Canal in this ship? It’s too small for us to fit on it!” “I know just the thing that we need to fix our ship! Be right back, mateys!“ “Ahoy, mateys! We can use my latest scrapvention, the big-ifying machine, to make the ship bigger. Then we can all fit on the pirate ship and look for that treasure!” “Junktastic! Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s big-ify this baby!” Swooper aimed the machine at the ship and pressed the ON button. A brilliant blue beam of light shot out of the machine’s funnel and surrounded the ship, and the ship began to grow . . . and grow . . . and GROW! “That's it! The ship is ready to set sail. Are you ready, pirates?“ “Arr!“ Thanks to the big-ifying machine, the ship was now big enough for all of the ScrapKins to fit inside. “Welcome aboard! Who’s ready to join our pirate crew?” “We arrrrre!” “Zoogarrrrr!” “Excellent, mateys!” He took an old paper bag and quickly fashioned a captain’s hat. “Ahoy! Now we’re ready for our high seas adventure to find the treasure!” With that they set sail down the Stinky Canal. After sailing for a while, the sky grew dark and the weather suddenly changed. “Whoa! It sure is getting windy!” “Don’t worry! We’ll be alright as long as we have our map to show the way.” Just then a gust of wind came and blew the map right out of Itcher’s hands! “The map! Oh, nooooo!” The map was gone. “Now we’ll never find the treasure!” The weather finally calmed and the ship steadied, but without the map the ScrapKins didn’t know which way to go to find the treasure. Pirate Swooper climbed up to the crow’s nest to see if she could spot the map from above. “Arrr.” Alas, she couldn’t see anything. “If only I had a spyglass.” “Unglebunk!” “Digger’s right! We can scrapvent one! We can use this cardboard tube and cup to build a spyglass.” When they had finished assembling the spyglass, Pirate Swooper looked through it. “Shiver me timbers! There be trouble ahead!” “Why, Swooper? What do you see?” “Well, I don’t see the map, but I do see a fork in the canal with two ways to go. One way leads toward safety, and the other way leads toward a . . . a waterfall!” “Oh, no!” “Smartly, me hearties! To safe waters!” said Pirate Wrecks. “If we go over the waterfall, we’re doomed!” Just then, Pirate Digger spotted a garbage can lid and an old mop floating in the water. “Grooblegorg?” he said. “Aye, aye, Pirate Digger!” said Captain Itcher. Wrecks fastened the mop to the lid and used his fire breath to weld them together. “Look! We scrapvented a paddle! Let’s get to work!” Pirate Wrecks took the paddle and began to row. Pirate Swooper flapped her wings next to the sail to create wind. Pirate Digger jumped into the water and pushed the ship from behind. Captain Itcher steered from the front. “Flap, row, push!” they shouted as they worked. “Hurry! Flap, row, push! Flap, row, push! It’s working!” As they set sail down the safe path, Pirate Swooper noticed something else through her spyglass. “Land ho, mateys!” “What does that mean? Is that bad?” “It means there’s land in sight!” “Land?” said Pirate Wrecks. “I wonder if that’s where the treasure is buried!” “Only one way to find out. Make way for that island!” The ScrapKins steered the ship toward the island as they happily sang. “Yo-ho-ho! Yee-hee-hee! The Pirates of Smelly Cove are we! We’ll sail all day and sail all night until the treasure is in our sight!” “Yo-ho!” “Arrr.” When they reached the sandy shore of the island, the ScrapKins looked around. “This is a big island. How are we going to find the treasure?” “Arrr. We’ll never find it without the map!” Just then Pirate Digger spotted something floating on the water’s surface. He bounced excitedly―and leapt from the back of the ship! A few moments later he swam back to land, holding a piece of paper folded between his teeth. “Mcklebop!” Captain Itcher picked up the paper. As he unfolded it, his eyes widened. “Great gobs of garbage! It’s the treasure map. Digger found it!” “Hooray! Digger found the map! Digger found the map!” “All right, mateys, gather ’round.” The ScrapKins studied the map. “We need to find something on the island that looks like something on the map.” “Woopdiegoople!” He saw something and headed to a nearby tree. “Digger, what do you see?” He looked back at the map. “Aye, Digger! That tree is just like the one on the map.” “That must be where the treasure is. Let’s go, mateys!” The ScrapKins bounded over to the tree. They scrapvented some shovels out of some empty milk jugs they found and began to dig in the sand. They dug and dug and dug some more―until they finally uncovered the top of a large wooden box. “It must be the treasure chest! I bet it’s filled with gold!” “And silver coins!” “And diamonds!” “Hurry! Let’s finish digging to find out!” Finally they lifted the chest out of the sand and slowly opened the lid . . . and inside the chest was nothing that they had expected. It was filled with rusty spoons, dented cans, pieces of used tinfoil, twisted metal tubing, and dusty bottles. The ScrapKins were stunned. “Mucklebrp zookgrb!” “You got that right, Digger. It’s . . . the BEST TREASURE EVER!” “Think of all the amazing things we can scrapvent using this junk! WOO-HOO! Look, I can make a bracelet out of this spoon! Ta-daa!” “And I can make a rocketship out of this bottle! Ta-daa!” “Tooklemrp bggleboo gurglezoopzip! Ra-raa!” “There’s no limit to what we can scrapvent using all of this great stuff.” “Arrr! This calls for a pirate celebration, me hearties!” “Arrr-greed!” They each held up their treasures and began to sing triumphantly. “Yo-ho-ho! Yee-hee-hee! The Pirates of Smelly Cove are we! We’ll turn these scraps into something new. Scrapventing stuff is what we do!” “Yo-ho! Shiver me timbers!”