Author(s): Rachel Flynn

Children & Young Adult

Williams has a school project to do by Friday. He has to design a moon station. Williams has a few ideas - there should be laboratories where the astronauts can do experiments on moon rats, and a space where they can play games like moonstick and snatch. But in the end it's just too hard, and he lets his parents do most of the work. This is what his friend Baxter (whose parents are an astrophysicist and a cosmologist) calls 'outsourcing'. Pretty much everybody does it, apart from Kathleen, a girl in his class who affects Williams strangely. When the projects are presented, they'll be judged by a wing commander who has been on five space missions. On the day of the judging, it's clear that Baxter's entry, a working moon buggy, is the best. But he didn't do it: his parents did. Should the prize then go to Baxter, or his parents? Williams learns a lot about homework, not least that it's possible to do it yourself, and that you can do research at the library (where, as it happens, Kathleen's mum works).