Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! [Hardcover]

Paul Feig (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: 3 and up

After being teased one too many times at school, Ignatius MacFarland decides to build a rocket. Maybe extraterrestrials are nicer than his classmates! But when his rocket takes an explosive wrong turn, Ignatius ends up in another frequency run by former English-teacher-turned-dictator, Chester Arthur. Mr. Arthur has taken the art, culture, and advancements of our world, shared them with this new frequency, and convinced the creatures around him that he's a genius. It's up to Iggy and Karen, another trapped earthling, to expose Mr. Arthur for the fraud that he is-and to hopefully make it home alive.

Part comedy, part science fiction, and part fantasy, this debut novel, with line art by talented newcomer Peter Chan, makes being a geek, well, kind of cool.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—Ignatius MacFarland, a nerdy seventh grader who is constantly teased at school, doesn't just want to leave his hometown: he wants to be rescued by aliens and taken to another planet. When Iggy creates a rocket out of trash cans and accidentally gets caught inside it during a test run, he finds himself in a different world. Though the land formations are like home, the trees have thorns and there are strange creatures like giant praying mantises and three-legged armless gorillas. Iggy eventually runs into Karen, a teenager from his town who supposedly died in an explosion. She explains that they're in another frequency controlled by a former failed English teacher from Iggy's school. Karen is on a mission to free everyone from Mr. Arthur's dictatorship, and Iggy gets swept up with her. While the premise is highly original, the story lacks a good explanation of frequencies and a clear plot. The characters are mostly running from one crisis to the next, with little downtime in between. Ultimately, this fantasy/sci-fi adventure fails to take off.—Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA
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From Booklist

Feig, the creator of the TV show Freaks and Geeks, now offers his first novel for young readers. Ignatius, a dork who isn’t comfortable on this planet, longs for aliens to come and take him away. After getting caught in the explosion of his homemade rocket (ill-advisedly built out of trash cans, duct tape, and firecracker gunpowder), he finds himself in a very different world. It is the same planet earth, but on a different “frequency,” where strange beings have evolved quite differently. Ignatius’ old teacher has also been transported to this frequency and now runs the show as an oddball dictator, trying to pass off Starbucks stores and Shakespeare plays as his own ideas. The slapstick plot meanders about somewhat repetitively, but Ignatius’ narration is a spot-on voice for young readers, falling back on juvenile barf- and pee-centric vocabulary for effect as he wanders about looking agog at the cartoonishly bizarre world around him. Yes, he’s an inept adventurer, but he nevertheless generates a good deal of laughs in this goofy, proudly uncool story. Grades 4-7. --Ian Chipman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316166634
• ISBN-13: 978-0316166638
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,498,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantstic Journey...Go Ignatius!!, September 7, 2008

By 

22 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! (Hardcover)

The whole family read this book and couldn't get enough of Iggy's adventures! My daughter 9, my son 13 and I (over 25) loved it! It is a fast read with every chapter leaving us wanting to read just one more before bedtime. The writing is beautifully detailed and funny for my 13 yr. old to enjoy, yet easy to read for my younger one. The illustrations are fantastic, too! Great for a read out loud family book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tween Anti-Hero, October 23, 2009

By 

Chris A. Lensch "Lensch Mob" (Traverse City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! (Paperback)

Our sons are 11, 11, and 8. They appreciated the mix of action and authentic stream of conscious bits. Each chapter left us all hanging just enough. There were unexpected and dimensional, young female characters and references to the performing arts. The monsters are just scary enough. We all appreciated the imaginative mix of visual descriptions too! Great read for an independent reader that may like the narrative style of the "Lightning Thief". Also fun for a bedtime family read-aloud.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My son loved it!, February 15, 2010

By 

B. Martin "bubbables" (Broomall, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! (Hardcover)

I had been trying to get my eight year old son to challenge himself with a larger book and we checked several out from the library. He flipped through many of them and didn't seem that captivated--until Frequenaut. It was a joy to see him read the book, hear him laugh out loud, and rush to share Iggy's adventures.

My son says, "I liked it a whole lot and I wished I was there in the book because it was a really amazing thing and I wish it was real life and I was Iggy. Iggy got to stand up and talk to the citizens of Lesterville. Doing that would make me feel really brave. Iggy didn't know how to be brave before he met Karen but when he stood up for himself it helped him a lot. I think it would help other kids learn to be brave, too. You should really read it. It's funny and sometimes scary, but sometimes the scary parts are kind of funny."