The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex
So that's when we Americans were given Florida. One state for three hundred million people. There were going to be some serious lines for the bathrooms.
I forget where I first read about this book, but it turned up in the Young Adult section of the library and sounded familiar, so I checked it out. It's a little hard to describe without giving away too much of the plot, but here's my attempt: Smekday (formerly known as Christmas) is the day when the Boov, led by Captain Smek, arrived on Earth and took over. They decided to let Americans relocate to Florida. Gratuity Tucci is a resourceful 11-year-old (with a not-so-bright mom) who decided to drive herself to Florida rather than taking the rocketpods. Along the way she meets a Boov named J. Lo, sees the arrival of the much nastier Gorg, and saves the world with the help of her cat, Pig. Oh, and there's the bit where her mom gets abducted by the aliens after receiving messages from them through the mole on her neck. Weird? Yes. But also quite entertaining.
The story is told from the point of view of Gratuity ("Tip" to her friends), an essay written for a "What Smekday Means to Me" contest. It's not entirely believable that it's written by an 11-year-old, but is still punctuated with funny slang and observations. Most of the illustrations are "photographs" which Tip took with her Polaroid, plus some comic-type illustrations done by J. Lo.
Her trip takes her down to Florida and the Happy Mouse Kingdom (any guesses what that's supposed to be?), and then out to Arizona (Roswell, naturally). And there's something called the Gorg. I won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say it's very funny. There are some plot points that don't quite hold up; not that this is serious science fiction, but still. For the most part, though, it's a fun, quick read.
Fed to jonathan's brain | December 26, 2007
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