Freddy Anniversary Collection (Freddy Books) [Hardcover]

Walter R. Brooks (Author), Kurt Wiese (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Here, together for the first time, are the first three Freddy books that Walter Brooks wrote, in a single volume, in the order in which they first appeared. Freddy Goes to Florida (first published as To and Again), alongside Freddy Goes to the North Pole (More To and Again), followed by the unforgettable Freddy the Detective-each lavishly illustrated by Kurt Wiese. These are Walter Brooks's first forays into the world of Freddy and his Bean Farm, to which he would return over and over again during the next three decades to create a total of twenty-six Freddy books. With a foil-stamped jacket and color plates of the original jacket and endpaper art, The Freddy Anniversary Collection is the perfect thing for fans and initiates alike: a great starter package, and a great collector's edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The kickoff trio of books by Walter L. Brooks unite in one weighty volume, covered in a porcine pink dust jacket: The Freddy Anniversary Collection, illus. by Kurt Wiese. These first three books in the 26-book series published between 1927 and 1958 preserve Wiese's original line drawings throughout, which plays up the vintage look: Freddy Goes to Florida (originally published as To and Again); Freddy Goes to the North Pole (nee More To and Again); and Freddy the Detective. The embossed cover features insets of Wiese's original jacket art.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Walter R. Brooks was born in Rome, New York, on January 9, 1886, and died in Roxbury, New York, on August 17, 1958. Brooks attended the University of Rochester and, after graduation, worked for the American Red Cross and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. He became associate editor of Outlook in 1928 and then a staff writer for several magazines, including The New Yorker. The short stories he wrote during this time were published in The Saturday Evening Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire. Brooks's short story "Ed Takes the Pledge" was the basis for the 1960s television series Mr. Ed, but his most lasting achievement is the Freddy the Pig series, which began in 1927 with To and Again (Freddy Goes to Florida). He subsequently wrote twenty-five more delightful books starring Freddy, "that charming ingenious pig" (The New York Times).

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Press; First Edition edition (October 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585673463
• ISBN-13: 978-1585673469
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Pigs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational and entertaining: dynamite!, September 19, 2005

By 

Tim Naff "Tim" (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Freddy Anniversary Collection (Freddy Books) (Hardcover)

Brooks wrote the Freddy series between 1927 and 1958. They combine superb character development, unbelievable educational content, and generally mesmerizing entertainment. They are appropriate for reading to children as young as five or six, and make excellent readers for children from nine to as old as early teens.

If you read Freddy to very young children, expect to leave out some slower-moving segments and provide lots of side explanations. The good news is that these books can make your kids WANT to know more about judges and juries, bond and bail, the electoral process, World War II, banking, newspaper publishing, geography, ... I could go on and on. The vocabulary-building value is also enormous: words like "constituents" and "torrid" are sprinkled in throughout.

If you look at the membership of the Friends of Freddy organization, you'll find it is predominantly male. I think that's because of the book titles, not the content. My second grade daughter looks forward to my reading Freddy every night. She has named toys after Brooks' characters. Brooks handles the characters and their relationships so deftly that literary experts have suggested that these works actually inspired Orwell's Animal Farm. Oh, and the president of the First Animal Republic was a female.

Before Overlook republished the entire series, some rarer titles were bringing as high as $200 each. That fact aside, this combination of the first three titles in a single volume is a terrific bargain. I would argue that Freddy Goes to Florida and Freddy the Detective are the two best books of the 26 book series anyway.

In this age of unlimited access to Disney DVDs and slam-bam, in-your-face video games, the Freddy series just might be your kids' ticket back to calmer, more thoughtful, and much more valuable entertainment. But be warned: you may find your fifth grader reading under his blankets with a flashlight long after he's supposed to be asleep. It happened to my parents when I was in the fifth grade.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great family read-aloud, December 1, 2003

By 

Beth A. Nieman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Freddy Anniversary Collection (Freddy Books) (Hardcover)

The only thing I didn't like about this 3-book collection was the difficulty in finding a good stopping place after my voice needed a break from reading it aloud to my kids--they always begged for "just one more chapter!" No crude language or gross-out humor here, as is the norm for many contemporary books published for kids. Instead, you'll find a sweet cast of well-drawn characters such as Charles the Rooster, the cow sisters, Mr. and Mrs Webb (a spider couple), Jinx the cat, and of course the title character, Freddy, who really begins to come into his own in the second book. The books have a similar flavor and feel to the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories, and are enhanced by the simple but effective line drawings created by Kurt Weise.
Stylistically speaking, these early works in the series can have somewhat bumpy plots, but Mr. Brooks' charm and his gentle social commentary more than make up for this. After we finished this collection of stories, my kids wanted to hear more about Freddy and his pals.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He's Back! Wonderful!, December 14, 2004

By 

nukelady (Millville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freddy Anniversary Collection (Freddy Books) (Hardcover)

I must have been about 7 years old when I found my first Freddy book at the local library. After that first one, I found and read them all. Freddy, and especially Jinx the cat, made me laugh out loud. As an adult, I've often looked for- but never found- the Freddy books, and mentioned them to other readers but only received blank looks in return. It's wonderful to see that the Freddy books are reprinted and back in circulation. I plan to buy them all and give them to nieces and nephews and my cousins' grandchildren...after I've re-read them, of course. I'm sure that the 50 years between readings have not dimmed the books' luster.