Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Max. Max had messy brown hair and a big smile. He wore blue overalls with lots of pockets. In his pockets, he carried screws, washers, and sometimes a snack.
Max loved to invent things. He had a special place behind his house. It was his garage. The garage was painted bright yellow.
Inside, it was full of magical things. There were boxes of shiny gears. There were piles of colorful wires. There were old clocks that went *Tick-tock, tick-tock.
* Max was not alone in his garage. His best friend was there too. Her name was Rosie. Rosie was a robot.
She was made of shiny silver metal. She had glowing green eyes and a happy antenna on top of her head. Rosie went *Beep-boop, beep-boop* when she walked. One sunny morning, Max sat on a stool.
He looked up at the sky. The sky was very blue. Fluffy white clouds were floating by. Max had a big idea.
He jumped off his stool. *Thump! * I want to catch a cloud, Max said. I want to give it a big hug.
Can you guess what happened next? Max and Rosie started to work. They needed to build a Cloud Cuddle Machine. Max looked for parts.
He found a big red fan. *Whoosh! * He found a long fishing net. He found some bouncy springs.
*Boing, boing! * Rosie helped too. She held the hammer. *Clank, clank.
* She held the screwdriver. *Whirr, whirr. * Max put the fan on a box. He tied the net to the fan.
He taped the springs to the bottom. *Rip, rip, stick! * The machine looked very silly. It had wheels and a long arm.
Max put on his safety goggles. Rosie put on her safety glasses. They were ready. Max pushed a big blue button.
*Click! * The machine started to move. *Vroom, vroom! * The fan spun fast.
*Whoosh, whoosh! * The arm reached up high. But oh no! The machine went too fast.
It spun around and around. *Crash! * It fell into a pile of old toys. *Bang!
* The machine broke. Max felt sad. His lip started to tremble. It did not work, said Max.
I cannot catch a cloud. Rosie the Robot rolled over. She patted Max on the back. *Pat, pat.
* She went *Beep, beep. * It is okay, Rosie seemed to say. Let us try again. Max took a deep breath.
In and out. He looked at the broken machine. He thought hard. Maybe the fan was too strong?
Maybe the net was too short? Max had a new idea. He took the big fan off. He put a small, soft fan on.
He made the net longer. He added feathers to the wheels so they would be quiet. *Swish, swish. * They built the machine again.
It looked better than before. Max pushed the blue button again. *Click! * The machine moved softly.
*Hum, hum. * The soft fan blew gently. The arm reached up slowly. It grabbed a fluffy white cloud!
*Gotcha! * The cloud came down. It was soft like cotton candy. It was white like snow.
Max and Rosie hugged the cloud. It felt cool and nice. Max laughed. *Hee, hee!
* Rosie spun around. *Whirr! * They did it! They caught a cloud.
Max sat on the floor with Rosie. They leaned against the soft cloud. It was the best invention ever. Max learned that mistakes are okay.
You just have to try again. Can you make a machine too? I bet you can.