It all starts with a school essay. When twelveyearold Gratuity Tip Tucci is assigned to write five pages on The True Meaning of Smekday for the National Time Capsule contest shes 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 alienscalled Boovabducted 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 Gratuitys 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 Gratuitys mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom a crosscountry 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 genrebending novel from bestselling author Adam Rex. show more