The True Meaning of Smekday

This was a Christmas gift for my 11-year-old son. He finished it a few weeks ago and loved it. So then I needed another read-aloud book for my daughter (age 9). She was soon entranced by the story and occasionally my son would pop by during a reading to re-live some of the humor. The story concerns a young girl named Gratuity (“Tip” to her friends) who is writing a school paper assignment (the title of the book). Smekday is a holiday created (or co-opted really) by the alien invaders known as the Boov. Tip's mom (along with most of the other Americans) gets kidnapped by the Boov and relocated to Florida. Shortly afterwards, Tip befriends a renegade Boov who had adopted the name J. Lo. J. Lo, a male by the way, is hiding from his fellow Boov because of a screw-up he's responsible for. Much of the humor in the book stems from the relationship between Tip and J. Lo. It's funny stuff. They're soon on a road trip together.

Once again, whenever I informed my daughter that I was going to stop reading for the night, she begged me to read just a little bit more. Note: there are several fun illustrations within the book too.