Saturday, November 07, 2009

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Gratuity Tucci (known to her friends as Tip) is an average girl whose life rapidly became not-so-average when the Boov showed up, kidnapped her mom and then took over the entire planet. As the entire population of the US is being transported to Florida so the Boov can take over the rest of the country, Tip decides that she is going to find her own way there. She already figured out how to drive the family car in the weeks after her mom disappeared, so she packs up her cat Pig and sets off to leave her New England home, bound for the swampy home the Boov have chosen for her.

Tip is less than thrilled to find herself giving a ride to a young Boov mechanic who has chosen the curious human name of J.Lo, but after he transforms her car so that it can float over the roads destroyed by the Boov, the two form a curious bond and find themselves spending long hours together in the car. Soon a new and sinister threat comes along and threatens to make the Boov invasion look like a day at Florida's Happy Mouse Land amusement park.

This book was extremely cute and utterly appealing. Adam Rex took some liberties with the format of the novel, making it a sort of scrapbook of letters, essays, drawings and J.Lo's hilarious cartoons. Normally, I might find this distracting - I'm one of those people who likes words and only words, thank you (I hate those links to news stories on newspaper websites that turn out to be videos!). In this case, the format works really well and adds to the charm of this novel.

No comments: