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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Nicely done. It's very hard to write a book of this sort. It wants to be Phantom Tollbooth without obviously drawing on what Juster already did. I think the tone is just right and that it manages not to be too twee. The real test? If you can read the Table of Contents for a book and find yourself cracking up, that's always a good sign. Nice, gentle fun.
Lots of fun language play can't really make up for an over-the-top yet shallow plot and weak characterization. The just small enough little boy has only ever wanted his facts - those that tell him about himself and his family. Unfortunately, they rolled away, taking his parents with them, and now his only hope of recovering them, the resident Facttracker, has been imprisoned by his evil twin Ersatz who has successfully begun peddling lies to the gullible residents of Trakkerfax. Yes, it's all very nonsensical, and would be more fun if I cared much for any of the characters, but they all are there and gone in a bit of a blur. The messages about truth and lies providing balance are intriguing, but superficial. Not highly recommended, but amusing enough as a distraction.
This book was a bit too silly for me, but I can see it may have an audience. It kind of reminded me of the Series of Unfortunate Events in a way - with puns and other word plays. For example, the lies come from the "liebrary".
One opinion about The Facttracker:
Take a good portion of Lemony Snicket and add some Captain Underpants sensibility and plenty of Eaton's own flavors to get this mix of intellectual absurdity, all wielded to share an actual story with a definite point to make. This book is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to 4th-6th grade readers and anyone else attracted to what follows.
A few facts about The Facttracker:
The table of contents takes 6 pages, as there are 50 chapters (plus chapters 2 1/2 and 2 3/4), many with rather long, convoluted titles like: The Answer to a Question That Wasn't Even Asked. And the Question Is This: What Were the Townspeople Up To?
The book opens with: A fictitious friend of mine once told me, "Everyone loves a good explosion." Sadly, he told this to me just moments before he himself exploded, but it was good advice nonetheless.
The protagonist is called the "just small enough boy": [He] was so small that he was almost too small. But not quite. He was just small enough.
Much of the book takes place in the Liebrary.
And one quote from The Facttracker:
The true test of a society isn't how many lies it has; it's how many it believes.
Take a good portion of Lemony Snicket and add some Captain Underpants sensibility and plenty of Eaton's own flavors to get this mix of intellectual absurdity, all wielded to share an actual story with a definite point to make. This book is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to 4th-6th grade readers and anyone else attracted to what follows.
A few facts about The Facttracker:
The table of contents takes 6 pages, as there are 50 chapters (plus chapters 2 1/2 and 2 3/4), many with rather long, convoluted titles like: The Answer to a Question That Wasn't Even Asked. And the Question Is This: What Were the Townspeople Up To?
The book opens with: A fictitious friend of mine once told me, "Everyone loves a good explosion." Sadly, he told this to me just moments before he himself exploded, but it was good advice nonetheless.
The protagonist is called the "just small enough boy": [He] was so small that he was almost too small. But not quite. He was just small enough.
Much of the book takes place in the Liebrary.
And one quote from The Facttracker:
The true test of a society isn't how many lies it has; it's how many it believes.
This is a wonderful book! It brings a lot of imagination to a lot of kids. From this book I learned the population of Nebraska quite well! Because I think the author is obsessed with the population of Nebraska, which is 2 million and seven. I liked the story because the Facttracker had a bunch of arguments with the evil Lies in the Liebrary, and Eratze was really evil. I liked how the just small enough boy became the Facttracker at the end. And the old Facttracker went off to Mexico to teach the Mexican hat dance. I recommend this book to all kid readers. It's wonder
If you are reading this blog entry, you are a genius! For this is the best book blog ever! Don't believe me? Just ask Ersatz, the downfall of Traakerfaxx. In Traakerfaxx you can find a huge tower and in that huge tower you can find the Facttracker, the man in charge of tracking all the facts of the world. Unfortunately, one of the facts that the Facttracker tracks is that he has a long-banished twin, Ersatz, who would like nothing better than to explode the Facttracker Factory and fill the world with lies. Which is just what he does in The Facttracker by Jason Carter Eaton. Whimsical and clever like the works of Roald Dahl and Norton Juster, The Factracker may be the best book ever written (or maybe just a really fun book.)
medium-paced
To be honest, I don’t know how to feel about this book. I loved it and am annoyed with it at the same time. It was extremely confusing and all over the place, but would recommend it. I know this makes no sense. Some parts I had to read multiple times because it just didn’t make sense. I don’t know if elementary students would be able to comprehend the complexity of everything going on at the same time. It jumps around and you really have to focus on every part of the story.
Reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth. Clever, lots of wordplay by an omniscient narrator whose asides aren't too annoying and intrusive. Good read for boys who like silly stuff.