The Facttracker

by Jason Carter Eaton, Pascale Constantin (Illustrator)

If you are reading this, you're a genius. Is that true? Who knows! But it sounds good. So This book is better than ice cream, television, and your birthday combined! The Facttracker is full of such statements. Unfortunately, most of them are lies, which is odd, since Traäkerfaxx is the town that produces all of the world's facts . So how can a story about a bizarre town with a weird name become The greatest novel ever written? Dinosaurs would help. Or maybe aliens. Alien dinosaurs would be dynamite! Alas, we have none of those. Here's what we do the Facttracker, who tracks all the facts in Traäkerfaxx. The just small enough boy, who lost all his facts. And Ersatz, but the less said about him the better. And, of course, there are lots and lots of facts and lies, such This book will make you good-looking and popular! Was that a fact or a lie ? For the answer, read on and encounter adventure, peril, and even more Large, oversized words!

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Kids

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Jason Carter Eaton was born in several small towns throughout the United States and one in Ireland. He is the author of numerous children's books, including How to Train a Train, How to Track a Truck, Great, Now We've Got Barbarians!, The Facttracker, The Catawampus Cat, and The Day My Runny Nose Ran Away, which most children thought was a funny story, though it was actually a tragic autobiography. Jason currently lives in Tarrytown, New York with his wife, two kids, giant dog, and pet freight train.

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Biggertony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This new children's novel is hilarious, magical, deep and important. It is an extraordinary work that speaks to everything that is current in our world today- specifically our very own culture of liars. Kids will have a blast with Jason Eaton's writing- he will bring giggles of joy as they devour his pages of word play and hilarity. Moreover, his insight into facts and lies will teach children a valuable lesson without them feeling like they are being preached to or instructed in any way. Eaton's work is certainly a significant piece of post 9/11 literature- one that deserves to be on everyone's bookshelves adults and kids alike. I think Eaton did a brilliant job bringing this modern fable to life- making it laugh-out-loud funny, emotionally resonant and strikiningly honest. Read it! Stock it! Buy it!

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Roald Dahl, Jason Carter Eaton has created characters that leap off the page with creativity and ingenuity in his first book for middle readers. The Facttracker is an intriguing tale of the just small enough boy who is in search of himself, and along the way, he and an entire town learns some valuable facts. Much like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, life lessons are right there on the page for learning, yet they are not forced fed to the reader. Instead, Eaton’s light, conversational and fun writing style makes the just small enough boy’s journey fun and elicits giggles right along with awes, moans and many, many gasps. This extraordinary children’s book will become a much loved favorite among its readers!

[Shanshad Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading a rather disappointing book this was a delight. Short and sweet tall-tale style story about facts and lies and a little boy who learns about both. The characters and events are perfectly over the top, never breaking tone. The quirky narrator voice that continually offers commentary on everything from how chapters are arranged to how to have fresh tuna fish sandwiches for weeks maintains the story as absurd but definitely fun. Reminded me a bit of A Whole Nother Story, which has a similarly quirky narrator throughout.

Lots of fun for a quick read.

[Addison Children's Services · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It would be great for fans of Lemony Snicket. Tra??kerfaxx is the town that generates and sells all the facts in the world; it is the town's economy. When the factory explodes a stranger appears saying lies sell better than facts and the liebrary is born. It seems the stranger is right; people do seem to prefer lies to facts. Can a �??just small enough boy�?� find the Facttracker and save Tra??kerfaxx before it is too late? This book has a lot to say about truth and lies and the benefits/negatives of each.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really sweet story that follows the archetype of Every Fantasy Story with a child-of-unknown-identity-yearning-for-a-family and Bad Guys and a Mentor. The predictability of the plot is completely ameliorated by the clever word play and the joy in the writing. This book is endearing and relaxing without being sappy. It's at a 3rd grade level or so - but would be a good read aloud to kids as young as six - or for struggling readers as old as 11.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a read aloud with my nine year old. We loved it and laughed out loud many times. It is a shame this book is out of print. My nine-year old particularly appreciated the word play, and specifically asked for the book to be in his room when we were done - he wants to re-read it for the word play.

[Linnae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The just small enough boy is on a quest to find his personal facts, but meanwhile the town of Trakkerfax has its own problems: specifically, Ersatz, the liar. Begs to be read aloud.

[Cassie Veselovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reminiscent of Roald Dahl, Jason Carter Eaton has created characters that leap off the page with creativity and ingenuity in his first book for middle readers. The Facttracker is an intriguing tale of the just small enough boy who is in search of himself, and along the way, he and an entire town learns some valuable facts. Much like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, life lessons are right there on the page for learning, yet they are not forced fed to the reader. Instead, Eaton’s light, conversational and fun writing style makes the just small enough boy’s journey fun and elicits giggles right along with awes, moans and many, many gasps. This extraordinary children’s book will become a much loved favorite among its readers!

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this one aloud to my kids. We really had to focus and push through some parts.

[The_ anonymous_M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing book! Written nicely with a good set of vocabulary! Love all the characters but, don’t like the ending about the parents and the world. Otherwise such an amazing Book!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Emmaline MacBeath · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Just Small Enough Boy lives in Traakerfaxx, a town that produces facts and sells them to the world. Just Small Enough Boy has lost all of his own facts along with his parents. The Facttracker lives in the fact factory. But one day an awful thing happens causing the fact factory to blow up. This is the cue for Ersatz to move into town. He is a lie maker. He convinces the town of Traakerfaxx that life will be easier and money more abundant if they create and sell lies instead. Just Small Enough Boy takes off on a quest to turn things back around for the town before it is too late.

The illustrations are fantastic and rich drawings that add interest to the story.

This fantasy story was very much along the lines of Dahl and Seuss in its random silliness. But that is part of what makes this an interesting read. The theory of facts and lies can get a bit mind blowing at times, but does not bog the story down. The chapter titles are engaging as well as the plot stoppers thrown in like the advertizement for how to keep a tuna fish sandwich in your pocket for days. The only thing that would have caused me to like this book more was deeper characterization.

I would recommend this book for ages 8-12 as a fast, easy, and fun read.

[Maicie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juvenile fiction

A great book to read out loud with your middle reader.

A just small enough boy, who has lost his parents, hopes to get some answers about himself from The Facttracker. Before he can get the facts he desperately wants Ersatz, The Facttracker’s evil brother, imprisons his brother in the Liebrary (yes, liebrary). It’s up to the just small enough boy to find the seed of truth and restore the town of Traäkerfaxx back to it’s factual state.

Some truthful facts:
Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg really exists. I looked it up.

“There’s no actual legitimate correlation between lions and duplicity.”

Some untruths:
“You are also beautiful, talented, interesting, and clever!”
“My goodness!” exclaimed the mayor. “Is that true?”
“Do you like hearing it? asked Ersatz.
“Why, I love hearing it!” said the mayor, bursting with pride.
“Then it’s true enough,” replied Ersatz.

“Toe jam tastes great with peanut butter.”

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Facttracker works in the Factory finding facts which the people of Traakerfaxx then supply to the world. When the just small enough boy, who tragically has no personal facts, is accidentally involved in blowing up the Factory, the Facttracker’s sinister brother Ersatz steps in, sets up a Liebrary, imprisons the Facttracker and convinces the people of Traakerfaxx that selling lies is much more fun and lucrative than selling facts. Can the just small enough boy set things right before the whole world is filled with nothing but lies? This is a great book that asks a very important question (What is the nature of truth itself?) without being too serious—well, actually without being serious at all—okay, let’s face it, the book is downright goofy, but also very fun and exciting to read. You won’t want to put it down until you finish and find out what’s going to happen!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.)

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you ever tell a lie and then have to tell another lie to cover that one up? And then another and another until your lies were just spinning out of control? Well, what happens in The Facttracker is kind of like that. Someone called the Just Small Enough Boy accidentally blows up the factory that produces all of the facts, the Facttracker's twin brother steals the seed of truth, the mayor runs around in his underwear, and the Facttracker eats nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches. Well... three of those four things are true! If you're still not convinced to read this book, consider this-- how could a book that begins with a chapter called, “Everyone Loves a Good Explosion,” not be entertaining?

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute enough story. All the usual tropes are here - the retiring expert, the child with a mysterious past, an evil twin, and a magical machine. Funny use of a library, but one that is not that far off, having worked in one so long. One thing that really bugged me about this book is that the author sneaks in some really lazy things but dresses them up as meta-humor a'la Mr. Lemony Snicket. For instance, telling us in one chapter that a character devised a scheme to get on a train that was complex and marvelous, and trust him on that because he is not going to tell us it. There are many other examples where his being cute interrupts the story in an annoying way.

[Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite exasperating. It seems as if the author felt the need to put in EVERY SINGLE clever and snarky remark he could think of. The result was a book that is awfully contrived and unreadable. Having said that, it still has an audience. I would most likely give this book to a young 4th-6th grade boy who liked to read encyclopedias...and there's nothing wrong with reading dictionaries and encyclopedias!

[Sean Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic, fast, and fun story. I enjoyed it as much as (or more than) the kids. Lies are powerful and persuasive, but truth is greater than lies.

I held back the fifth star due to unnecessary interjections of God’s name and because there is judgment coming for liars, not just acclimation to the existence of falsehood as the story ends. So read it and keep in mind that the worldview is close-to-Christian but not clearly so.

[Christina Personti · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I don’t know how to feel about this book. I love 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.

[Anne Nydam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both kids and I thought this was delightfully funny! The place in the middle where the author tells us there were lots of exciting adventures he's not telling us about was a bit of a cop-out, but on the whole the quirky, goofy, nonsensical narration was a blast. (And be sure to read the dedication.)

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

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".

[LeeAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read! I read it in a couple of hours but cute and funny! I can't wait to read this one to my kids! There were even some thoughts worth thinking about in it too! Fun way to approach the idea of the necessity of opposition in all things.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kid absolutely went nuts for this book, so I picked it up too and it's really clever. So clever in fact, that I thought my kid didn't actually understand it all. But he did. Funny, unique, and thoughtful, this book had a real impact on my son.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

very funny, fast-paced, good for relectant readers, especially boys, gentle message about the importance of honesty

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Charlou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, it was fun!

[Maggi Rohde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book about words, and the lies you can tell with them. This reminded me of, and would be a good follow-up to, The Phantom Tollbooth.