Ignatius Macfarland: Frequenaut!

by Paul Feig

Hardcover, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Publication

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (2008), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 353 pages

Description

Bullied in school and called "Piggy MacFartland," twelve-year-old Iggy longs to travel to another planet and live among extraterrestrials, until an explosion transports him to a scary alternate reality.

User reviews

LibraryThing member omphalos02

Inventive JUV fiction about Iggy and his adventures in an alternate reality ("frequency"). Was disappointed that the ending was just a lead in for a follow-up book.

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LibraryThing member EKAnderson

Ignatius MacFarland is fed up with Earth. He doesn't fit in at school, in town, or even in his home. He really likes UFOs, mostly the idea that maybe someday aliens from another planet will come and take him away from this place where he is bullied and unappreciated. Iggy decides to build a rocket

ship of his own to go find the aliens that clearly haven't come for him yet. But there is an accident during the test launch, and Iggy gets trapped in the rocket when the fuel ignites. There's a massive explosion, and the next thing he knows, he is in a world that almost looks like our own, but is far from it. And everything is named after some guy named Arthur - some guy who turns out to be an evil dictator. And Iggy recognizes him - he used to be a teacher at his school. Iggy's adventures in this alternate frequency are hilarious and action-packed. While sometimes Feig tries a little too hard with the jokes in the narrative, this is the sort of stuff that a 5th grade boy will eat right up. The creatures Iggy meets are both fascinating and charming, and his cohort Karen turns out to be a real kick in the pants. Ignatius is definitely one to watch for this fall.

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LibraryThing member Girl_Detective

This was recommended to me by a fellow "Freaks and Geeks" fan. I like Feig's work, so I was disappointed when I didn't like Feig's book.

Ignatius is a typically Feig-ian outcast. He's twelve, has few friends, doesn't connect with his parents and gets picked on at school. He fantasizes about alien

abduction and space travel to get away from it all. When he and his friends build a spaceship, he gets his wish. Sort of. He's transported to an alternate "frequency" of Earth, one that has a few other former members of his town, who also got caught in explosions. One of them is Karen, a badass goth girl, and another is Chester L. Arthur, a former English teacher with delusions of grandeur who has subjugated many of the strange-creature natives, taken over as "President" and tries to pass off other people from Earth's best creations as his own.
Iggy and Karen meet up with a race of flying intellectuals, then are caught in a race war while being chased by Arthur's army. Throughout, Iggy provides commentary as well as story. It's supposed to be funny, but instead I found it tiring.

This is a young boy adventure, and it might appeal to young boys and people who were at some point young boys. It failed to connect with me, from its meandering plot to its end that wasn't an ending, but instead a thin bridge to a sequel I don't care to seek out. I wanted to like it, but couldn't.

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LibraryThing member hsollom

Personal Response:

A funny sci-fi adventure, but I was a bit disappointed that Feig left the door open for a sequel rather than providing a real ending. For anyone familiar with Feig's other work, Iggy is a familiar, sympathetic figure.

Curricular or Programming Connections:

Design artwork of

creatures in frequency

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LibraryThing member YouthGPL

If I gave this book a letter grade, it would be an F. It was a terrible book, and I don’t often say that, especially about something I got all the way through. I only read it because it is one of the Readers Choice books for the state of MT, and there has been some debate about how appropriate it

is - there is a lot of pee talk and boy talk. Ignatius is a 11 year old boy who has been picked on his whole life, and like most bullied students, there’s not one thing that you can point out. So he and his friends decide to build a rocket to go to outer space to avoid all of this. At the last minute, Ignatius gets in the rocket, and ends up in another frequency. It turns out that an English teacher and a high school student from his frequency (Earth today) are also in this new frequency. The English teacher has taken over this world and is making everyone do his will, and Ignatius gets caught up in the anti-establishment. The book is extremely (probably over-) complicated. There is constant action and it is told in a breathless stream, much like someone who has ADD. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the story, and a Diary of a Wimpy Kid feeling to it, but I really could have cared less. I didn’t like Ignatius, and when he is forced into defending himself, it left me cold. This is a set-up for a series, but I would never recommend it.

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Fewer

Subjects

Science fiction

Space and time Fiction

Awards

Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Junior — 2011)

Language

English

Physical description

368 p.; 5.5 inches

ISBN

0316166634 / 9780316166638

Local notes

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.

Signed by the author. Lined "Freq out". Remaindered.