The True Meaning of Smekday
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| Author | Adam Rex |
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| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Disney Hyperion |
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Publication date
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2007 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 423 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 156912803 |
| LC Class | PZ7.R32865 Tr 2007 |
| Website | smekday |
The True Meaning of Smekday is a 2007 children's book by Adam Rex that was highly recommended by The New York Times. The book was adapted into the 2015 animated feature film Home.
Rex's second volume in the series, Smek for President!, was published in 2015, prior to the release of Home. The film version, which departed significantly from the books' continuity, was followed by the 2016 animated TV series Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh.
An audiobook edition of The True Meaning of Smekday, read by Bahni Turpin, was released on March 8, 2011.
The story is narrated in first person by a twelve-year-old girl in 8th grade, and takes the form of a school-assigned essay intended for submission to a national competition, and expected to be stored in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years.
The protagonist is Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, who must survive on her own at age eleven, after her mother is abducted by an alien race called the Boov. The entire Boov population arrives in a fleet of ships on Christmas Eve, and use their advanced technology to take over the Earth without bloodshed. The Boov promptly rename Earth "Smekland," and rename Christmas "Smekday," in honor of their leader, Captain Smek.
On "Moving Day," when all humans are required by the Boov to relocate to Florida, Tip evades being transported by the Boov, and instead drives the family car to Florida in search of her mother. When the car breaks down, Tip reluctantly joins forces with a fugitive Boov mechanic who had taken the name J.Lo, thinking it to be a "common Earth name." Tip learns that the overly-friendly J.Lo was fleeing from his fellow Boov because he had accidentally broadcast a party invitation that gave away the Earth's location to the Gorg, a violent alien race who had previously conquered the Boov's home planet.
Tip journeys across the Boov-controlled United States with her cat Pig and J.Lo, unsuccessfully seeking her mother at Florida's "Happy Mouse Kingdom," and continuing west to New Mexico and Las Vegas. There, Tip and J.Lo, together with a wise old junk dealer named Chief Shouting Bear, must prevent politician Dan Landry from incompetently reaching a disastrous accommodation with the invading Gorg. In the face of certain death or enslavement by the Gorg, Tip finds her own way to defeat the powerful aliens, saving humans and Boov alike.
Smek for President!, a sequel billed as Book Two of the Smek Smeries [sic], was released by Disney-Hyperion on February 10, 2015, along with an audiobook edition read by Bahni Turpin. The novel follows Tip and J.Lo on an impromptu summer vacation to New Boovworld, where J.Lo seeks a pardon from Captain Smek, but instead finds himself a pawn in Smek's campaign for High Boov when the Boov adopt human-style politics.
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