The True Meaning of Smekday

The True Meaning of Smekday (2007) is a middle-grade science fiction adventure novel by Adam Rex. It is multimodal, containing news articles, assignment prompts, letters, photographs, and comic strips. The novel follows Gratuity “Tip” Tucci as she recounts living through an extraterrestrial occupation by “the Boov” and attacks from the Gorg. A sympathetic Boov named J.Lo, Tip, and her cat, Pig, survive a series of misadventures to find Tip’s abducted mother and reclaim Earth for humanity. The novel explores themes of The Impact of Colonization from a Child’s Perspective, The Nature of Cross-Cultural Understanding, and The Complexity of Living Through and Recording Major Historical Events.

Rex has written and illustrated many novels, including the sequel, Smek for President (2015). The novel was a 2007 finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction. The audiobook won the 2011 Odyssey Award. It was adapted into the 2015 DreamWorks film Home.

This guide refers to the 2007 Hyperion Books hardback.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of racism. Additionally, the source text includes outdated, racist terms to refer to Indigenous communities, which the guide replicates only in direct quotes.