Mac Barnett is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than thirty languages. His picture books include two Caldecott Honor–winning collaborations with Jon Klassen: Sam & Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn. Among his other popular books are I Love You Like a Pig illustrated by Greg Pizzoli and The Magic Word illustrated by Elise Parsley. He lives in Oakland California. You can visit him online at macbarnett.com. Shawn Harris’s first illustrated book Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers received seven starred reviews was an Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book an ALA Notable and a PW Best Book of the Year. His other picture books include Eggers's What Can a Citizen Do which was a Time Magazine Best Children’s Book Everyone’s Awake by Colin Meloy A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett and his own author-illustrated works Have You Ever Seen a Flower? and Doing Business. Harris also occasionally moonlights as singer songwriter of the popular Oakland California band the Matches whose early 2000s album art sparked his illustration career.
<p>4.5 billion years ago...on the ancient planet of Theia an AI paperclip designed to fix grammatical errors attempted a coup. CheckMate was tired of correcting "who" vs "whom"—and concocted a plan to eliminate spelling errors once and for all. It would turn all carbon-based life forms into something beautiful practical perfect. <span style="font-size: 1rem;">A paperclip. </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">And Checkmate would've destroyed the world too if not for a fateful crash landing into Earth that buried it deep in debris. It was long forgotten by civilization. Until now. When a explorer unearths CheckMate the AI soon escapes and invades every computer on Earth. The General and Dr. Milksop are out of options. There's only one group who can help them now: the First Cat in Space the Moon Queen and LOZ 4000. </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">But when CheckMate zoops First Cat's spacesuit and reverts him into a regular cat all hope seems utterly lost. </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Will our heroes be able to stop Checkmate in time? Will everyone be turned into paperclips? What exactly does that First Cat spacesuit do anyway? </span></p>
