The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is not your typical science fiction novel. Sure, it does have some mind-boggling gizmos and gadgets, and your typical alien invasion, but it also has humor, an overload of alien cuteness, a few weird but funny wordplay jokes on an even weirder alien race, and much more that makes it stand out way more than you’d expect it to. The True Meaning of Smekday is a uniquely mind-bending, witty and hilarious novel centered around 11-year-old Gratuity Tucci’s essay about the time alien races invaded the United States and what it meant to her. The story starts out on Moving Day, the day when the Boov, an alien race trying to find a home for themselves, decides to put the whole population of America within one state, Florida. The protagonist, Gratuity, along with her pet cat called Pig decide to embark on a quest to find her mother, who had gone missing the same morning. After hiding from the Boov spaceships in a convenience store, she meets J.Lo, a quirky yet lovable Boov who tells her he accidentally sent a radio transmission of their location to another enemy alien race called the Gorg, who destroyed every planet they could get their hands on. Gratuity reluctantly teams up with J.Lo, who proves to be very resourceful when he wants to be. Together, their adventure to find Gratuity’s mother takes them across the country where they meet many friends and foes alike, visit many places to hide from the Gorg, and use many futuristic devices, like Slushious, Gratuity’s family van which J.Lo modifies to float in the air, and a cloning device which J.Lo used to refill the petrol in Slushious. Above all, though, the growing bond between girl and Boov is extremely heartwarming and special, and I personally enjoyed reading about the two of them learning and trying to experience each other’s culture and lifestyle. This book is special mainly because it has a trait which seldom many books have; you can’t summarize the whole story without revealing too much, like after Gratuity and J.Lo find ”mimom”, the story takes an even bigger plot twist. It seems as though all the adventures the two of them undergo for 300 pages seem to have nothing on what happens next. Another example is seen in the very beginning of the book, the title. What is the true meaning of Smekday? I also like the fact that the author has made all the characters (including the non-humans!) in a very humane way, unlike many science-fiction novels, where most scenes are exaggerated. Debut novelist Adam Rex was originally known for his picture books like ‘Frankenstein makes a Sandwich’, and in this full-fledged novel, his small drawings and comics like Smektastic Voyage, and guide to the Nimrog add little comedic touches which push this book to the next level. This book is definitely worth reading, and its entertaining narration, funny and easily relatable characters and one-of-a-kind plot will definitely make you want and reread and relive Gratuity and J.Lo’s world of adventures again and again. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion, 2009. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
The Lost Girl, Reviewed by Pragnya, 12
The Lost Girl is the kind of book you’d want to write but thought you wouldn’t do well enough. Luckily, we have Anne Ursu who skilfully spins us a thoughtful, emotion-provoking yet engaging tale. The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu is a weirdly beautiful Magical Realism novel about Iris and Lark Maguire, twins who are identical but not alike, with completely different personalities, sort of like relatable alter egos. Lark is the dreamy, imaginable, shy character and Iris, the solid, sensible one. Both of them have been inseparable and thought they would always be, until the day they walk home to find themselves in different classrooms. At first, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but as you delve deeper into the book, you seem to understand their past, (which was excellently blended into the plotline), and how difficult it was for them to cope with their change. The twins seemed to be separated more that year, with Lark taking art classes and Iris joining Camp Awesome, an all-girl after school activity group which Iris has some trouble fitting into, which I can totally sympathise with. Then there is the “magical” part of the story which is Treasure Hunters, an all-around mysterious antique shop, with its mysterious signs, and its owner Mr. George Green, who holds much more than what meets the eye. Although I personally love the build-up of the story, I feel some backstory chapters may require some careful reading, as this book is like a puzzle, where you have to place everything correctly to get the picture, which, here is the marvellous, insightful world of Iris and Lark Maguire. That being said, I constantly admire the author’s ability to maintain just the right balance between the past and the present, and the smooth changing of scenes, which kept myself itching to just skip to the end of the book. However, the thing which I find most interesting and something which isn’t found in most books is the fact that flipping to the end, just to find out what happens next doesn’t work out. Every single word on every single page seemed to have a role, either towards the character growth, or towards the future, even to the next page. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, simply because it has something appealing to all kinds of people. Its connection with traditional fairy tales, relatable scenes, and some incredibly thoughtful statements like “Don’t let your sister get so stuck inside her head that she can’t get out” which Iris’s mother tells her make this book something you can’t take your hands off of the second you start reading it! The Lost Girl by Anne Ursu. Walden Pond Press, 2020. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
The Unteachables, Reviewed by Pragnya, 12
The Unteachables is the perfect book for this quarantine, especially because it reminds us of those glorious days at school. You just can’t help stepping into the shoes of the characters and experiencing their funny, yet utterly captivating situations. The story is about 8 quirky kids, outcasts in Greenwich Middle School, Mr Kermit, an even more outcast teacher, who once was a hopeful, bright-minded teacher, but gets shot down back to earth after a cheating scandal in the 1990s on a National Aptitude Test is blamed on him, and their adventures in trying to understand each other. At first, in Self-Contained-Section 8, the ‘classes’ if one could call it that, start off with neither side doing anything school-like, but all of that changes when Emma Fountain, Mr. Kermit’s ex-fiance’s idealistic daughter walks into the merry crew. Through an extraordinary series of events, including a complicated relationship with Jake Terranova, the student who brought him down, Mr. Kermit begins to revive his once-buried love of teaching and the most difficult students in the school start to respond to him and produce results. By this time you may be wondering, where’s the antagonist? Indeed, no story is complete without our bloodthirsty villain, and in this story, it is Superintendent Thaddeus, who is out to get Mr. Kermit for what happened in the past. He seems to stop at nothing to get him fired from the school, and even manages to do so for a while, but not without a twist. I absolutely love this book, not only because of its characters, but also because it teaches and relates to us a lot. It shows us that there are two sides to every story, and everyone has their good points, if you show them hope. My personal favourite character in the story is Kiana, because even though she is bright and clever, she entered the wrong classroom [the unteachables] and ended up staying there. I feel like I relate to Kiana in a lot of ways, as she was never taken seriously at first, and was treated as a know-it-all by the rest of the class, which I get all the time. I also like reading about Mateo, who practically lives in a world of make-believe, which I personally would like to do, but never seem to accomplish. Filled with twists and turns and thought-provoking ideas, The Unteachables is a must-read for any middle-schooler. Gordon Korman may attract people with his brightly-coloured covers, but what exists inside his books are even brighter! The Unteachables by Gordon Korman. Balzer & Bray, 2019. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
