Why You Should Be Reading Adam Rex, Author Behind Movie “Home”
by Tom Burns
DreamWorks Animation is releasing their new 3D animated movie, “Home,” this March, and while movie fans are excited by the fun trailer and stellar cast (Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and Steve Martin, among others), book fans are excited about “Home” for an entirely different reason.
Fans of children’s literature know that “Home” comes from the mind of Adam Rex, the critically-acclaimed writer and illustrator, perhaps best known for his middle-grade novel The True Meaning of Smekday (otherwise known as the book that “Home” is based on).
If you want to know why Hollywood is suddenly paying attention to Adam Rex, here’s a quick introduction to some of his best works for kids and tweens, all of which feature Rex’s keen artistic wit.
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The Dirty Cowboy
This picture book was the first children’s title that Rex ever worked on, hilariously bringing to life Amy Timberlake’s over-the-top filthy cowboy, on the occasion of his once-a-year bath. Rex’s penchant for visual humor shines throughout the book — you’ll have a hard time not laughing out loud at his increasingly creative ways to hide the cruddy cowpoke’s nakedness.
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Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich
This illustrated poetry collection does a fabulous job of showcasing both Rex’s staggering attention to artistic detail and his deliciously bent sense of humor. The book, along with its follow up, Frankenstein Takes the Cake, assembles poems about the world’s most famous monsters — Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, and the Headless Horseman, to name a few — and Rex gives each poem its own bizarrely unique tone. Some are parodies of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” others are set to the tune of “The Girl from Ipanema.” But they’re all hilarious and kids will love Rex’s sense of humor. (How can they not love a book with a poem titled “Godzilla Pooped on My Honda”?)
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Pssst!
This extremely funny picture book follows a young girl on the strangest visit to the zoo ever. Every time she passes one of the animal enclosures, she hears “Pssst!” and the animals inside plead with her to add their requests to a very unusual, ever-growing shopping list. The design of Rex’s crazy zoo is pure genius and the aftermath of the girl’s shopping trip is hysterical.
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The True Meaning of Smekday
Rex’s first novel for young readers, the basis for DreamWorks’ “Home,” is written in the format of a school assignment — an 11-year-old girl, nicknamed “Tip,” is writing an essay about the details surrounding “Moving Day,” the day an alien race named the Boov took over planet Earth and forced all the humans to relocate to Florida. During the chaotic relocation, Tip meets a kind Boov, nicknamed “J.Lo”; the new friends navigate the weirdest invasion ever, and attempt to save the planet from the Gorg, an evil alien race that really hates the Boov. A sequel, Smek for President!, was released in February 2015.
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Chu's Day
In this collaboration between Rex and fanboy-favorite Neil Gaiman, we’re presented with a simple question: Is there anything cuter than a baby panda sneezing? The short answer is “no,” and the whole book builds to Chu, the panda in question, letting an epic sneeze rip. This popular title spawned two sequels, Chu’s First Day of School (2014) and Chu’s Day at the Beach (scheduled for release in June 2015).
