I am currently listening to the audio version of The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex.  Generally, I prefer reading the book rather than listening to it.  However, this novel won the 2011 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production, which, obviously, is awarded to audio versions of books.  Because this I felt it was only right to listen to the audio version, which is contained on a collection of nine CDs.  At first, I considered abandoning the CDs.  This story is so not what I normally read!  Space/fantasy is not an attractive genre for me.  But I stuck with it and found myself actually enjoying the listening experience.  Because it is on CDs, I listen to it on my way to and from school each day.  Several times now I've found myself laughing out loud all alone in the car.

The story line is so, so silly, but I've actually begun empathizing with the main character.  Her name is Gratuity, but her friends call her Tip.  Gratuity's "Boov" friend is a funny sidekick for her.  Everything about this story is completely outrageous, but I know children will love it.  In fact, according to the reviews I've read, children are fascinated with it.  There is even a movie version coming out in 2014.  I might even take my grandchildren to see it!

The Boov are the creatures from outer space who have taken over Earth.  They have eight legs and eat strange things, such as dental floss.  After kidnapping Earthlings to teach them how to speak and become familiar with other human habits, they came to Earth themselves.  They travel in things that look like spools of thread and cultivate antennae farms.  Because they were taking over the United States, they told the humans they would all have to move to Florida and live there together.  The only good thing about that is "Happy Mouse Land."  That's where Gratuity and J-Lo, her Boov friend, are now.  They just found out that the Boov decided they wanted Happy Mouse Land and transported all humans to Arizona instead.

I will update more on this novel when I'm done listening.  I'll have to start taking the long way to work so I can get done with it sooner!  In the meantime, I've begun reading Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani.  I'm only 30 pages into it so I don't have enough of an opinion yet to write about it - more at a later date.