It all starts with a school essay. When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’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 – called Boov – abducted 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, Gratuity’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’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 “photos,” drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent.

The True Meaning of Smekday (Unabridged)

Adam Rex

Listening Library

The True Meaning Of Smekday

This ol' boy needs a bath!
After he finds a tumbleweed in his chaps and the numerous bugs buzzing around him affect his hearing, the cowboy decides it's time to head to the river. Once there, he peels off all his clothes and tells his trusty old dog to guard them against strangers. He takes a refreshing bath and emerges clean as corn – but so fresh-smelling that his dog doesn't recognize him! Negotiations over the return of the clothes prove fruitless. A wrestling match ensues in a tale that grows taller by the sentence, climaxing in a fabric-speckled dust devil.
Amy Timberlake has inserted a Western twang into this tale of filth and friendship, and Adam Rex has found many creative means of bodily concealment in his expressive, comical paintings.

The Dirty Cowboy

Children's Books

Animals

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Go back in time to a sleepy Mississippi River town The townfolk of a small village on the banks of the upper Mississippi come vividly alive at the sound of a whistle and the holler of "Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-comin'!" The incoming vessel is filled with passengers and cargo, and at a rapid speed, things are unloaded and loaded - but before you know it, the village is once again at its previous sleepy pace. Inspired by Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Jill Esbaum has crafted a skillful, spare poem, and Adam Rex has created gorgeous paintings that do homage to Norman Rockwell. Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-Comin'! is a 2006 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-Comin'!

Jill Esbaum

Literature & Fiction

Cold Cereal Facts Serving size 1 chapter Number of servings 40 Primary human characters 3 Scottish Play Doe, aka Scottpossible changeling Erno Utz genius Emily Utz supergenius Magical creatures at least 3 Mick Leprechaun (or Clurichaun) Harvey Pooka (rabbit-man) Biggs indeterminate origin (hairy, large) Evil organizations 1 Goodco Cereal CompanyPurveyor of breakfast foods aspiring to world domination Adventure 75% Diabolical Schemes 40% Danger 57% Legend 20% Magic 68% Humor 93% Puzzles 35% Mystery 49% Not a significant source of vampires. May contain nuts. Daily values based on individual interest. Reader's estimation of value may be higher or lower, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing.

Cold Cereal

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich

Scholastic. Inc.

Frankenstein Takes The Cake

"I'm Lucy Rose and here's the thing about me: I am eight and according to my grandfather I have the kind of life that is called eventful, which means NOT boring. According to my mom and my grandmother, I'm what they call a handful. And according to my dad, I am one smart cookie." "I say I am one girl who is feeling not-so-sure about things on account of my parents got a separation. Plus my mom and I just moved to Washington, D.C. Plus I haven't met any friends yet, but I do know someone who is not one and that is Adam Melon, who I call Melonhead." "Here's another thing about me: Most of the time, I am plain hilarious."

Here's the Thing about Me (Lucy Rose Books (Library))

Katy Kelly

Teen & Young Adult

Perfection Learning

The work that brought writer Nat Gertler his Eisner Award nomination is collected in book form for the first time. This is a super-hero tale where you never see the super-hero. Instead, a series of connected short stories show how his presence effects the lives of everyone else: the cop on the beat, the crook on the street, the reporter, the retiree, the kid playing with a doll of the hero. Over 20 stories, illustrated by Eisner- and Friends of Lulu Award-nominee Justine Shaw (Nowhere Girl), Joe Staton, Ignatz Award- and Friends Of Lulu Award-winner and six-time Eisner nominee Carla Speed McNeil, mini-comics pioneer Matt Feazell, and many more.

The Factor (FACTOR TP)

Comics & Graphic Novels

Nat Gertler

Joe Staton

Justine Shaw

Carla Speed McNeil

Janine Johnston

Alex Grecian

Ted Slampyak

Graphic Novels

About Comics

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Books by Adam Rex