The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex Narrator: Bahni Turpin
Length: 10 Hours 37 Minutes
Published by Disney Electronic Content on February 10th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Animals, Humorous Stories, Mysteries & Detective Stories
Pages: 432
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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The book that inspired HOME, now a major motion picture! It all starts with a school essay. 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 the 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. Fully illustrated with "photos," drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel from best-selling author Adam Rex.
I am for reals on an audiobook roll. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex narrated by Bahni Turpin is one of the most hilarious, heartfelt, and engaging audiobooks that I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. Seriously, if you aren’t sure about audiobooks, introduce your ears to The True Meaning Of Smekday.
The True Meaning Of Smekday by Adam Rex begins with 11 year old Gratuity Tucci also known as ‘Tip’ turning in an essay for an time capsule contest called ‘The True Meaning of Smoke Day’. She recounts how the Boov, an alien species invaded Earth and forced the human race to relocate to Florida. Eventually Gratuity expands beyond her essay to talk about her gradual friendship with a Boov named J. Lo and her drive to Florday with her cat, named Pig.
Gratuity is legit the coolest 11 year old ever. She’s got the tenacity to drive a car, to stand up to the Boov and eventually to another alien species. And her interactions with J. Lo were a big source of laughs for me, as J. Lo learns human customs. And you guys, normally I am like blahhhh aliens but I freakin’ LOVED J. Lo. His ghost costume and love of eating strange things made him so endearing to me. ALSO a heads up, the Chief, one of the minor characters you will meet while reading The True Meaning Of Smekday is legit THE DEAL. Watch out for him, you don’t want to miss that noise.
Bahni Turpin totally brings her A-game to her narration of The True Meaning Of Smekday. Like, I thought she was great in The Help audiobook but she turns it up to 11 in this audiobook. She does different voices and accents for the characters and it is probably the biggest reason I fell in love with J. Lo and Tip. And y’all, I just love her Boov accent. Like, there’s no holding back, she goes FULL ON. Y’all The True Meaning Of Smekday is an audiobook that I have zero regrets about spending an Audible credit on and hope you will check out as well. It is 10 hours and 37 minutes long and is produced by Listening Library.
Disclosure: Purchased copy.
Other reviews of The True Meaning Of Smekday by Adam Rex:
Abby The Librarian
Stacked
Book Nut
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I have never heard of this book before and it sounds super interesting. Not sure what I would think of it just because I’m not big on uber young protagonists…but my interest is definitely piqued.
I think that you should give Smekday a chance, like, especially the audiobook. It’s hilarious and good and wonderful. And the characters are so well done.
I’m so happy you finally listened to this one.
Last year a few of my students who read this book for literature circles acted out a few scenes from the book as part of their culminating project and one of the scenes involved J.Lo in his ghost costume and I was laughing so hard I was crying because the student got all the subtle J.Lo mannerisms (even went so far as to very stealthily take a can of food and hide it under his ghost sheet to pretend like he ate it). I think J.Lo might be my favorite character in the history of books. I love him that much.
Oh my god, that would be something to see — the J.Lo costume.
While J.LO isn’t my favorite character ever, he’s up there. I love his mannerisms.
I haven’t listened to the audiobook, but I LOVED The True Meaning of Smek Day! Seriously, the best book ever. I laughed out loud and I fell in love with J.Lo, the coolest alien ever. I went into it with reservations – aliens, really? – but holy crap, this book is awesome. Everyone should read it! Maybe I’ll even get over my hatred of audiobooks to give this one a try since it sounds amazing. 🙂
Right, aliens are dumb, but Adam Rex managed to make them hilarious and awesome.
And OMG who does not fall in love with J.Lo?
And yes yes, give Smekday a try before swearing off audiobooks forever.
Haven’t heard of this one before, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Love when the narrator takes the material and runs with it like this. Hope to check out the audio sometime soon.
Lucy, as a fellow audiobook aficionado I think that you’d LOVE the audiobook of The True Meaning of Smekday!
Gratuity sounds awesome! LOL! I love the name,and the obvious nickname of Tip!! LOL!!!
This sounds like a great audio book; I’ll have to hunt for it sometime 🙂
Yes, her nickname is awesome.
Jac, you’ll LOVE the audio.
I’m so glad you recommended this to me, April! My library ordered a copy, I’m stoked! I’m excited to hear what the narrator sounds like, cause you know, that’s a pet peeve, but if you liked the narrator, then I bet I will.
YAYYYYYYY! I’m stoked too. Hope you LOVE this one.
First, what a cool cover. That alone would probably entice some of my students, especially reluctant readers, to try this one. Second, LOVE Bahni Turpin. She totally rocked The Help. I’m all out of Audible credits (seriously, they go so fast!), but I’m putting this one on my wish list.
Haha for me I have a lot of Audible credits, but I usually end up buying audiobooks at those sales they do and then have this policy of not using a credit until I listen to X amount of audiobooks in my account.
This sounds like a trippy, fun book! Plus, the cover…oh, yeah. I really like that! I had to re-read the sentence when you mentioned J.Lo…so not the J.Lo I was thinking of!
J. Lo the alien is actually totally named for J. Lo the person, and there are funny bits during the book where she’s referenced.
I totally groan at aliens too, but since you were able to power through that instinct and STILL rave about this book as totally funny and clever, I am SOLD. Audiobooks4Life.
Straight up audiobooks are the bestttttt.
This sounds so weird, but one of my friends adores Adam Rex, so I definitely need to try him out at some point!
Also, I really love this cover. It’s so cool! This is odd, since I usually go for the pretty dress covers. :-p
The cover is, indeed, awesome.
And you know, friend recommendations are awesome. So you totally should listen to your friend and try Smekday out!
This sounds quite strange, but definitely interesting enough to look into. Thanks for the review :]
Smekday is strange, but it’s really good.
I just threw this in my Overdrive queue at the library. It sounds AWESOME. I love aliens but I’m weird like that. Hadn’t heard of it before now so THANK YOU for the introduce!
YAY! That makes me really excited that you went and got Smekday from the library. I have a good feeling about this 😀