Booktalk #1

Nine-year-old Iggy Frangi talks out in class, spits pancakes across the table when he laughs, and sings songs about pee. But he’s not really bad. At least he doesn’t mean to be—not usually.

According to the narrator, there are three types of bad things. The first one is something “we say we wish we hadn’t done, but actually wish we hadn’t gotten in trouble for,” and it’s this type of thing that gets Iggy sent to his room in the beginning of the story. The other two types of bad things are worse though, and Iggy manages to do all three by the end of the book. And #3—the last on the list and the one that involves his beloved teacher and a desk race—is definitely the worst of all.

The story is sure to make readers laugh out loud with silly asides from the narrator and loads of black-and-white drawings that show Iggy’s escapades, including licking a fish and running from the bathroom covered in shaving cream. Some readers may even see a bit of themselves in Iggy. (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award, 2021)

Booktalk #2

Meet Iggy Frangi. He is impulsive and he know is. Even though he knows he acts without thinking, it does not stop him. Iggy has some great ideas that end up not working out the way he thought they would. Enjoy this hilarious book about a boy who does some kind of bad things that ultimately end up being really bad things. Or is that just the way his teachers and parents see it? You be the judge.  (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2021-2022)