Iggy Is the Hero of Everything

April 15, 2021
Iggy's intrepid and clever selflessness is open to misinterpretation. This installment in the chronicles of 9-year-old Iggy Frangi's (Iggy Is Better Than Ever, 2020, etc.) encounters with unintended consequences examines intent as an element crucial to gallantry. After learning of a break-in at the Heckies' house nearby, Iggy has a plan for thwarting the potential theft of his best Halloween candy, along with his family's other valuables. It's pretty simple: Set a decoy and dig a trap. It's hardly Iggy's fault when annoying 7-year-old Rudy Heckie is injured during the trap construction. (No, Rudy's finger is not severed.) Nor is it Iggy's fault that Mr. Heckie hurts his tailbone when he trips over Rudy and falls into the trap dug with the shovel that didn't sever Rudy's finger. The pace and energy of Barrows' narrative matches Iggy's focused enthusiasm for his (somewhat ill-conceived) plan. The apologist narrator, very much on Team Iggy, provides evidence that points to Iggy's heroism. Ricks' cartoon illustrations are a lively and hilarious complement to Iggy's thoughts and experiences. In them, Iggy, his family, and the Heckies appear White. Iggy's charm is substantial, so blithely optimistic are his intentions and so singular (yet familiar to any well-meaning human) his way of seeing the world. Iggy's ideas are clear to him--it's everyone else who ends up asking, "What were you thinking?" This genuine and energetic, if hapless, antiheroic hero grows on you. (Fiction. 8-11)

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