Originally, I picked up The True Meaning of Smekday because I like the author/illustrator, Adam Rex. He also wrote the really funny poetry books Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake as well as the great children's book Psst! What I found on reading his first full length novel was that he continued to be funny! The main character, who's name is Gratuity (Tip for short) is funny and smart, and J.Lo the Boov is awesome. I read some of it to my mom and even she was cracking up and now we quote lines from the book. That's how good it is. Anyway, here's a quick summary I swiped off of Amazon.com
It all starts with a school essay. When twelve-year-old Gratuity ("Tip") Tucci is assigned to write five pages on "The True Meaning of Smekday" for the National Time Capsule contest, she's not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens - called Boov - abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it "Smekland" (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod? In any case, Gratuity's story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity's mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.
Give it a read!
DFTBA,
Sti
Comments