The True Meaning of Smekday

It all starts with a school essay.
When twelve-year-old Gratuity ( x201C;Tip x201D;) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on x201C;The True Meaning of Smekday x201D; for the National Time Capsule contest, she x2019;s 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 aliens x2013; called Boov x2013; abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it x201C;Smekland x201D; (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?
In any case, Gratuity x2019;s 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 Gratuity x2019;s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion.
Fully illustrated with x201C;photos, x201D; drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent.