The True Meaning of Smekday

Much to the chagrin of Jeff, I can't stop doing a Boov voice. It's so funny. Give an Odyssey Award to that Boov voice! Done!

The True Meaning of Smekday is a hilarious sci-fi adventure, an object lesson about the perils of intergalactic imperialism, a super great audiobook, and probably just a little bit too long. I mean, I liked it a lot, but I thought it could've (should've) been a smidge shorter.

Still, a lovable renegade alien named J.Lo.? Heck yeah.

Fantastic satire.
Humorous adventure, too.
Slapstick, parody, and pretty sophisticated political commentary.
But at the same time, the thrills felt genuine, too.

Like a cross between [b:Gulliver's Travels|755011|Gulliver's Travels (Two Parts)|Jonathan Swift|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1290377878s/755011.jpg|2394716] and [a:Daniel Pinkwater|20575|Daniel Pinkwater|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218645652p2/20575.jpg], with a bit of less one-sided War of the Worlds"* thrown in.

*inside joke - it'll mean more to you after you read the book.

Hard to believe this is a kid's book. Rex doesn't underestimate kids, and I appreciate that. I love this now and would have loved it age 11 (some kids can read it younger, but I was too naive).

For show more example, the worst cuss word is 'hell' because our narrator (the hero) doesn't like bad language, so she bleeps out one boy's potty mouth. And even 'hell' gets a 'pardon my language.' So that makes it ok for sheltered kids. Otoh, sheltered kids might not understand the comparison of flying flamingos to "sprinting drag queens." I certainly wouldn't have.

Love the parody of Disney World. For example, how can it be always clean, always perfect? Each attraction is doubled, base to base... after close, the assembly rotates, and a freshly repaired and cleaned version is sent above, while the workers have a whole day to refurbish the dirtied one.

Love the bit of the history of the Boov that we learn, including: "400 years ago. Art is replaced by entertainment. 350 years ago. Entertainment is replaced by Talking about Entertainment. 325 years ago. Talking now almost always occurs over vast distances -- on phones or by computer. Face-to-face communication is carried out mostly by T-shirt."

Love the way Rex sneaks in stuff to make smart kids feel proud they know something extra. It "looked like something Hercules ought to be wrestling on the side of a vase." Would most 10 yo readers get that? I doubt it. But those who do will get to snort "Ha!"

Love the way this is a 'boys' book' (in the sense that it'll appeal to boys who otherwise avoid reading, as well as to other readers) and yet the hero is a girl. Who is simply a strong brave clever girl, tyvm, not a spunky tomboy. And who has some pretty unflattering things to say about boys... things some of them might take as complimentary, though.... Oh, and she's black. (Her word; she's not enamored w/ African-American.) And her mom is Italian.

Love the way there's virtually no info-dumping, hardly any backstory. For example, I don't understand her mom at all. But that's ok. Eleven yo Gratuity is not a psychiatrist and so we can't be expected to learn complex insights from her voice. (I have noticed lots of MG books lately in which the child narrator is preternaturally wise and insightful, and it drives me nuts.)

Gosh I could go on. But I won't. Read it yourself. If you have any interest in adventure, satire, invasion SF, whatever, I fully expect you'll get a kick out of this. Don't think of it as a kids' book.

Btw, the ending felt a little awkward *to me.* I didn't fall into loving it right away. But now I almost want to go back and read it from the beginning all over again.

I see there's a sequel. I'm not sure I want to read it. This is brilliant, and ends satisfyingly." show less

Oh, Smekday, my forever girl. I love this book. I adore it. I'm always an obnoxious book proselytizer (mention a book and watch me rec! forever!), but this book cranked me up to 11. I forced people to read it. I bought a copy for a bed-bound friend. I read this out loud to my Best Beloved. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

I love Tip, I love the alien races, I love the humor, I love the edges hidden inside the humor. I love all the characters, particularly J.Lo, hapless alien repairperson and brave friend to Tip. I love the cartoons and the illustrations and basically every word of the book. Basically, I love this book so much someday my kid is going to HATE it. (And I will still read it to him. Because I love it.)

This is not the type of book I would usually pick up. Even as a child, I wouldn’t have chosen this one. I know they say not to judge a book by it’s cover but, lets face it, when people look for books the cover is the first thing we see.

This book blew me away. It was not at all what I expected. I was expecting a book featuring a boy or young man as the main character. I was surprised when the main character was a spunky eleven year old girl who was retelling how she and her alien friend saved the planet. While the book focused on the invasion of the planet by an alien species, there was a lot of subtext that can be used to encourage thoughtful discussions on treaty rights, war, and tolerance. Not only that, it was funny! I can only show more recall one other book* that made me nearly shoot coffee out my nose. As an adult, that is not the same thrill as it would be to a 10 year old, but still, three words…”Devastating Eye Lasers.”

This is a great book and everyone needs to read it, especially girls.

I must note that I did take advantage of the audio book version that was available at my local library, which was brilliantly narrated by Bahni Turpin. I had to go back to the book itself to appreciate the details of the small comics that were ‘contributed by J.Lo.’

*The other book that always makes me laugh? The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I have read that a dozen times. I still crack up. show less

Eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci is used to being the grown-up in her family - her mom is a little impulsive (manic?). But when her mom is abducted by aliens and returns with a glowing purple mole in the back of her neck, that is definitely out of the ordinary. Gratuity - Tip to her friends - is left alone when the Boov invade and send everyone in America to live in Florida. Tip takes her mom's car and their cat, Pig, and decides to drive to Florida instead of taking a Boov rocket pod, but she runs into trouble on the way. She teams up with a Boov who has also run into trouble; he fixes up her car, and they remain a pair throughout the rest of the book, from Florida to Roswell to Arizona and back, dodging other Boov, surviving a show more hurricane, discovering the secrets of "Happy Mouse Kingdom," and defeating the Gorg.

Tip is clever, cool under pressure (mostly), creative, determined, and very funny. Her relationship with J. Lo (the Boov who fixes her car) is a model of open-mindedness (and some snark). Written in the form of an essay for a hundred-year time capsule, this is Tip's story of how she - not Daniel Landry - saved the world.

Recommended in audiobook webinar (and Bahni Turpin's narration is definitely top-notch! This is a longer audiobook than I would normally listen to, almost 11 hours, and I listened to the whole thing).

See also: We're Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey

Debbie Reese's critique of Smekday: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/search?q=Smek show less

Eleven-year-old Gratuity "Tip" Tucci's mother is abducted by aliens, who then conquer the Earth and decide to relocate the population of the United States to a human reservation in Florida. Gratuity elects to drive rather than be transported, takes her cat, picks up an alien in need of a ride, has all kinds of trials, tribulations and adventures, and ultimately plays an instrumental role in liberating the world.

It's a wonderfully fun combination of hilarious wacky comedy, science fiction, road trip story, and satire on colonialism in one of those rare volumes that seems likely to work so well for both adults and kids that I'm honestly not sure which audience the author had in mind while he was writing. I enjoyed it immensely.

Although I show more am tempted to take back half a star for the way that the characters keep leaving their cat in the car for hours on end. In hot climates. In the summer. With no apparent bad consequences. Come on, Mr. Rex, that's just irresponsible! (I am, however, fine with the eleven-year-old driving a car by tying cans of corn to her feet so she can reach the pedals.)

Rating: 4.5/5, if I ignore the car-and-cat thing. show less

Everything everyone ever told me about this book is true. I adored it. Tip was fantastic and having the tale written as an essay from her point of view really let her personality shine through. J.Lo was almost just as great, as were Pig, the different BOOBs, the Chief, Tipsmom, and the rest. The illustrations and comics were important to the story and were adorable. Had I children, I'd read this to them. Since I don't, I'll most certainly be gifting it. It's fun, it's wildly entertaining, and it's rooted in the realities of the world and doesn't shy away from things like racism but makes them completely understandable and approachable for children (and anyone) to think about. So much fun!