The True meaning of Smekday
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley February 18, 2015
Author Adam Rex
Distributor:
ISBN: 978-1-4088-5913-1
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens
Release Date:
Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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Originally released in 2007 this latest reprint coincides the Dreamworld Production titled ‘Home’, an adaptation of what has turned out to be a ‘cult following ‘of Gratuity and her best friend J.Lo, Boov alien extraordinaire, an unlikely combination
The story revolves around eight years old Gratuity getting a really bad mark for her English essay about her experiences during a recent alien invasion and the fact that Christmas has now been renamed Smekday.
She sets out to rewrite the essay but as she goes along the essay seems to almost come alive and the adventures she and her alien friends J.Lo have together are as farfetched as the imagination can make them. No, she does not get abducted by aliens at all, but her mother does. The second time her mother get abducted she manages to save the day, or the world, or at least America, which is interesting!
But the story goes like this: Gratuity meets up with a Boov alien who somehow has ended up here on earth. He encourages her to give him a lift to the human sanctuary in Florida. As she is driving her mother’s car, because her mother has already been abducted by aliens, with her pet cat Pig for company, she feels she can hardly refuse.
J.Lo, who it turns out, is running away from other Boov’s who are trying to take over the world, and grab him, as he had accidently sent a crank call to the Boov’s worst enemies the Gorg, and almost succeeding, causing a lot of problems to the Boov and starting up yet another lot of trouble, which seriously upset the HIghBoov, Captain Smek. Not a good thing to do!
J.Lo is concerned they, mainly he, may get caught and so he works his special magic, making the car fly. But when they get there, Florida that is, in record time of course, they find things were not at all as they expected which sets off a hair raising adventure in search of safety and freedom from the Gorg.
Smekday is a combination of way out there sci-fi, great comic strip cartoons, completely madcap mayhem, laugh out loud nonsense and somewhere in the mix, some hard core social commentary.
Designed for the 8-12 age range and lovers of the Horrible Henry, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and such like, it is a book which can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers from 8-18 years.