Frequenaut!

December 1, 2008
Gr 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"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2008
Grades 4-7 Feig, the creator of the TV show Freaks and Geeks, now offers his first novel for young readers. Ignatius, a dork who isnt 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 teacherhas 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, hes an inept adventurer, but he nevertheless generates a good deal of laughs in this goofy, proudly uncool story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)