Freddy the Pig
Brittany and I were talking about books over lunch today. She's been reading books from a few mystery series. Last week she borrowed seven books from the library and has already finished five ot them. I told her about the first mysteries I read, various adventures of
Freddy the Pig.
I discovered, of course, that Freddy has his own
home page, and you can now
buy all his books. Honestly, I cannot tell you what I remember about this series. I read it in fourth grade. I recall being attracted to the title
Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans, and from there I read about one a day till I had exhausted the series.
Today I discovered that
Walter Brooks, the author, attended my alma mater and was a fellow Upstate New Yorker. When I went exploring further on the web site, I found this commentary from Adam Hochschild of the
NYT Book Review interesting:
"Poking fun at generals, realtors, bank presidents and the like was unusual fare for children's books of the 1940's and 50's. Other volumes make a few digs at the space program and at the FBI - Freddy's bumbling Animal Bureau of Investigation often misses the evidence right under his snout. In a subtle way the books even prefigured the spirit of the 60's. In "Freddy and the Bean Home News" the animals start their own paper because Mrs. Underdunk, the rich, haughty newspaper owner, and her editor, Mr. Garble, distort the news. When the evil Mr. Condiment hits Freddy, Freddy thinks: 'He slapped me because I am a pig….If I were a boy or a man he wouldn't have done it.'
Small wonder, then, that some of the children who grew up on these books went on to found alternative newspapers, to march for civil rights and to become ardent environmentalists. Still, you don't have to be in the 60's generation to appreciate Freddy. As with all books that last, their attraction is broader and deeper. Essentially, they evoke the most subversive politics of all: a child's instinctive desire for fair play. Brooks speaks powerfully to his young readers' moral sense without ever overtly moralizing. The local sheriff, for example tells Freddy's sidekick, Charles the rooster, that he will get much tougher penalties for pecking the face of a rich man than that of a poor one. Truer words were never spoken. But how can a reader feel preached at when it's someone talking to a rooster."
Time to get some reading in before bedtime.
# posted by Todd @ 8/28/2005 09:41:00 PM
