| Fantasy |
| Mystery |
| Juvenile Fiction |
| Science Fiction |
Summary
Summary
The hilarious, genre-bending novel from bestselling author Adam rex that inspired the blockbuster feature film Home -- fully illustrated with "photos," drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences.
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 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.
Author Notes
Adam Rex received a BFA from the University of Arizona. His first picture book, The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake, was published in 2003. His works include Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, The True Meaning of Smekday, and Fat Vampire.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
When aliens invade Earth and steal her mother, 11-year-old Gratuity Tucci sets out to find her mom and, along the way, discovers intergalactic friendship with her alien companion, J. Lo. An amusing road trip turns into an incredible journey as Turpin effortlessly gives voice to angst-ridden tweens, domineering humans, menacing aliens, street kids, cats, and the wonderful wobbly-voiced, tongue-clicking J. Lo, making this 2011 Odyssey winner an aural treat. Standard: Students will be able to describe literary devices such as plot, place, character development, and humor. Learning Activity: In art class, students can draw images of what they think J. Lo and Gratuity look like and and describe why their visual representations were chosen. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Who knew the end of the world could be so hilarious? With a misfit cast of characters led by a precocious 11-year-old narrator named Gratuity "Tip" Tucci and a bumbling alien named J.Lo who has an appetite for dental floss and air fresheners, Rex's high-octane fantasy could fairly be called an apocalyptic comedy. After the Boov (technologically advanced aliens) conquer Earth (or Smekland, as they call it, after its discoverer), they decide that humans must live on preserves; all Americans must move to Florida. Tip, driving her mother's car with her cat Pig for a passenger, meets the unexpectedly helpful Boov J.Lo, who, she later discovers, has bungled a mission and is on the lam. Parallels between the Boov and European settlers and their treatment of Native Americans deepen the impact of the story, but the author goes well beyond delivering a single political message. Incorporating dozens of his weird and wonderful illustrations and fruitfully manipulating the narrative structure, Rex skewers any number of subjects, from Disney World to various fleeting fads. Some of the best jokes come from throwaways and from J.Lo's and Tip's attempts to understand each other (when Tip asks if his society has boys and girls, he says, "Of course. Do not to be ridicumulous," and calmly lists the "seven magnificent genders" of the Boov). Picture book aficionados will already know Rex from Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Pssst! (reviewed Sept. 10); now another audience can savor his wit. Ages 8-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) What's an eleven-year-old girl to do when the same aliens -- the Boov -- who sucked up her mom ""like soda"" into their spaceship announce (after conquering the whole planet) that all Americans must relocate to Florida? Go along to get along? Not Gratuity ""Tip"" Tucci. Instead, Rex's spunky protagonist learns how to drive, packs up the Chevy, grabs her cat, and heads off to find her mother. Along the way, Tip meets a Boov mechanic named J.Lo, who soups up her hatchback with extraterrestrial parts, then hitches a ride. Turns out J.Lo himself is on the run after mistakenly advertising the planet's whereabouts to yet another alien species. Quite clever and highly entertaining, Rex's sci-fi/road-trip amalgam is loosely structured as a personal essay written by Tip two years after the Boov invasion. Now and then, readers hit a draggy stretch, but Rex holds interest with Tip and J.Lo's growing friendship and a sense of humor that calls Daniel Pinkwater to mind. (""'I spy, with my little eye, something that starts with...G.' 'Sausages,' guessed J.Lo."") Black-and-white illustrations -- a combination of Tip's Polaroid snapshots, J.Lo's comic-book panels, and additional drawings -- capture the characters' escapades and shed light on Boov history. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Gratuity Tucci ("Tip" for short) has a problem. Aliens have invaded Earth, stolen her mother, and now she and the rest of humanity are being shunted onto small reservations while the invaders (the Boov) take over the rest of the planet. In avoiding this plan, via her family car, Tip runs across J.Lo, a renegade Boov with problems of his own. Together, girl and alien attempt to locate Tip's mother only to discover that an even greater alien threat is imminent. It's up to the two heroes to defeat the invaders, Boov and otherwise, and save the day. The humor in this story is undeniably unique, containing a skewed worldview that children will certainly enjoy. Yet while the first half of the book is an entirely funny road trip of the Kerouac-meets-E.T. variety, the second half slows down considerably. Rex has such a nice grasp of small tender moments amidst a world gone haywire, it's a pity the book wasn't pared down significantly. Inspired but problematic. (Fiction. 11-15) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci is assigned to write an essay, The True Meaning of Smekday, explaining the significance of the day that the alien Boov, led by Captain Smek, took over Earth. Gratuity describes her journey across an occupied U.S. to rescue her mom, who has been abducted by the Boov. A renegade alien named J.Lo joins her quest, and together they return the planet to human control, while also defeating the mean-tempered Gorg, Boov rivals hoping to conquer Earth themselves. J.Lo's characterization, including his humorous clipped English and the touching sibling relationship he forges with Gratuity, help smooth out an otherwise sputtering narrative that is prone to tangential wanderings. Still, this mixed-media work, comprising letters, photos, and Rex's hilarious comics (among them, a strip entitled J.Lo's 8 Things You Have Always Wanted to Know about the Gorg but Were Afraid to Ask the Gorg Because the Gorg Might Punch You in the Face ) is guaranteed to tickle the middle-school funny bone.--Hubert, Jennifer Copyright 2007 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
SOMEWHERE around age 10, the excitement of reading - of just knowing what those words say on the page - is over. Many readers have plowed through everything they wanted to, meaning they've read all the series books. They've read and reread "Warriors," the Alex Rider books, "Artemis Fowl," the Percy Jackson books and "The Edge Chronicles." Harry Potter is over. Sigh. Parents want to know what I do as a librarian to get their kids to try something new. And the truth is - nothing. There is not much I can do, except wait along with them for The Book: a story so original, so absorbing and so laugh-out-loud funny that the minute I read the last page, I want to start at the beginning again. "The True Meaning of Smekday" is that book. As I was writing this review and looking up a quotation, I got sucked into the vortex and reread through the night. This first novel by Adam Rex will captivate fans of the wordplay and characters in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" and of the outrageously entertaining satire of Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The tale is told in the form of a school essay assignment, as part of a national contest. The winning essay is to be included in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years. "What is the Smekday holiday?" the assignment asks. "How has it changed in the year since the aliens left? You may use your own personal experiences from the alien invasion to make your points. Feel free to draw pictures or include photographs." In the year 2013, an alien race, the Boov, have conquered Earth. They have superior technology, like antimatter guns that can make buildings and people disintegrate, and mechanical bees that can enter anything and then explode themselves. Christmas Day has been renamed Smekday to honor the aliens' great leader, Captain Smek. The Boov leaders have decided that all humans must vacate their homes and move to a reservation in Florida. This would be good for the humans, the Boov reasoned, because didn't all humans want to go to Florida? Our narrator is Gratuity, an uncommonly self-reliant 11-year-old girl. Her name was chosen by her mother, who seems to have misunderstood the meaning of the word. Gratuity usually goes by her nickname, Tip. Although the Boov have the ability to transport masses of humans by spaceship, Tip has decided to drive to Florida with her cat, Pig. After her mom was taken by the Boov, Tip taught herself to drive. She managed to reach the pedals by nailing cans of corn to her church shoes, navigating the streets of West Philadelphia for short distances. "I made a lot of mistakes at first," Tip says, "and if anyone was walking on the sidewalk at 49th and Pine after dark on March 3rd, 2013, I owe you an apology." Her road trip is interrupted suddenly when the highway ends. The Boov have destroyed the road that would have taken her to the Florida resettlement camp. Tip writes: "I nearly puked. Can I say that in a school paper? That I puked? Because when I said 'nearly,' what I really meant was 'repeatedly.'" Tip stops by the MoPo to assemble some provisions. She explains to the future readers of her essay that the MoPo "was something called a convenience store, as in, 'The soda is conveniently located right next to the doughnuts and lottery tickets.'" At the store, Tip is discovered by one of the Boov. After a brief altercation, she captures him in a freezer case, and they arrive at a standoff. The Boov warns that he will have to "'shoot forth the lasers from my eyeballs!' "I fell into a row of shelves," Tip writes. "That one was new to me. ... 'You can do that?' "The Boov hesitated. His eyes quivered. After a few seconds he replied, 'Yes.' "I squinted. 'Well, if you shoot your eye lasers, then I'll have no choice but to ... explode your head!' "'You humans can not to ex -' "'We can! We can too! We just don't much. It's considered rude.' "The Boov thought about this for a moment. "'Then ... we are needing a ... truce. You are not to exploding heads, and I will to not do my devastating eye lasers.'" Tip and the Boov eventually form an uneasy alliance, joining forces in search of her mother. Because the aliens' language is nearly impossible for humans to understand or pronounce, this Boov selects the Earth name J. Lo. It's not telling too much to mention that a third very aggressive alien race, the Nimrog, aka the Gorg, aka the Takers, enter the story because of an error made by J. Lo. The Boov are puppies compared with the Nimrog, who destroy everything in their path. J. Lo notes that they smell like "lilacs ... sprinkled with cinnamon ... and buried under a shoulder-high pile of rancid dogmeat." When Tip and J. Lo finally arrive in Florida, they discover the area mysteriously lacking in humans. But they stumble upon a rebel gang of boys who have escaped detection by the Boov by living under the Happy Mouse theme park. The boys explain that the rest of the humans have been transported to Arizona because the Boov, having discovered oranges, want to keep the fruit all to themselves (not to eat, but to wear on the ends of their six legs). Tip and J. Lo take to the road again, this time traveling west with a Boov patrol hot on their tail. It is on this leg of the journey that Tip and J. Lo bond through adversity as they use their intergalactic wiles to save the human race. Adam Rex, a picture book artist (see "Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich" and "Pssst"), documents his story with graphite pencil, pen and ink. He simulates black-and-white Polaroid photographs, pencil drawings by Gratuity and cartoons drawn by J. Lo. Although it's a book for children, adults will find this page turner, really a satire about the conquering of foreign cultures, entertaining as well. Its pacing and cadence make it a perfect story for reading aloud, and it's almost impossible to resist sharing great lines with people nearby. Lisa Von Drasek is the children's librarian of the Bank Street College of Education.
