The True Meaning of Smekday / Adam Rex 423 p. (audio by Bahni Turpin)

My family and I are still talking about this story, more than a week after we finished listening to it. Gratuity (Tip) Tucci, age twelve, has a lot to handle once her mother is abducted by the Boov, a race of aliens which has taken over Earth and ordered all Americans to Florida. Gratuity elects to drive herself and her cat, Pig, from her home in Pennsylvania, but runs into obstacles, not the least of which is that the roads have all been blown up by the invaders. But things improve once she meets a rogue Boov who calls himself J-Lo, is a whiz with electronics, and has some odd dietary habits. They establish a cautious friendship, and working together they make their way first to Happy Mouse Kingdom, and later to Arizona, after a second even more insidious alien group, the Nimrog, decide to shunt everybody to Arizona instead. Rex is a great talent - the story is cleverly framed as an essay contest, the plot twists are unexpected, and the moral complexities are challenging. Best of all, the dialogue is absolutely hilarious, and the character of J-Lo is so adorable that I would dearly love to adopt him. Bahni Turpin's audio rendering of J-Lo's personality is fantastic. Really, I can't say enough good about this, and I bet my family will listen again on our next road trip.