Customer Reviews

Freddy and the Men from Mars (Freddy the Pig Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was prejudiced against Bean's fifties incursion into space after the tedium of "Freddy and the Space Ship," but "Men from Mars" proved to be a surprisingly strong title. My six year old son laughed a lot and was thrilled when one of his favorite villains showed up. A good one!

I love this book and i think it is one of the best by Walter R. Brooks.
I love Walter Brooks and i love all of his books including Freddy the Pilot, Freddy The Cowboy, and Freddy and the Egnormous.
I highly recomend his books to people of all ages.

Walter R. Brooks Is witty and intellegent he makes wonderful books and this is wnderful and i think it should be rated ten stars!!!!!



It is so Cool.

Freddy the Pig and his friends from the Bean farm have come a long way from their first trip to Florida in 1928. Now they have a Farm Animals Republic, a bank, a newspaper, an atomic powered car and even a rocket ship. But, despite the prestige and renown of being Bean farm animals, their basic nature had remains the same - they are honest, forthright, and darned funny.

Things bode ill for the Boomschmidt Circus when Herbert Garble (who has never had an honest day in his life) joins them with six strange looking men from Mars - each a foot high, in red pajamas and wearing red fluffy whiskers. Freddy is sure there is some fraud involved, but the Circus is making a ton of money and the last thing the farm animals want to do is hurt Mr. Boomschmidt. Freddy, Jinx the Cat, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Peppercorn head out to investigate.

What they find is pretty fishy, or rather, pretty ratty. Mean old Simon the rat and his family are up to their necks in trouble making, and Garble's Martians are just the start. If the rats have their way the Beans will be forced off their farm and Uncle Ben will lose his rocket ship. Drastic times call for drastic measures as the animals prepare to go to war.

If things are strange with fake Martians, they get stranger when a flying saucer full of real Martians shows up to investigate. Soon there are rats pretending they are Martians, rabbits pretending they are rats pretending they are Martians, and real Martians stirring the pot. As Freddy nearly is sent to Montana to become pork chops and bacon, everything hangs in the balance.

As always Walter Brooks' tales combine humor and suspense with a natural sense of values that apply equally to animal and man. If the science in this book is a bit silly it is still engaging enough for its intended readership. And the simple lessons of friendship and doing what is right never grow old.

At first, when it is announced that Martians have landed and are on display at Mr Boomschmidst's Circus, Freddy the Pig, poet and detective, is intrigued. However, when he finds out his old enemy Herb Garble is the one who discovered them and is promoting them, he grows suspicious and decides to investigate. The Martians wear red long johns and describe a home planet suspiciously like earth, more specifically, rural New York. Freddy smells a rat...literally and it isn't Garble. A hilarious mystery with all of the favorite characters of the series have come to love over the years. We also get to meet Mr. Hercules, Mr. Booms brother who is not quite bright but enjoys a good joke....once he gets it. And, much to Garble's annoyance and chagrin, as slow as Mr Hercules is to get a joke, he is even slower to forget it. Can't say more without giving the story away. Lots of laughs as our Freddy barnyard sleuth solves the mystery of the Men from Mars. Cleverly illustrated, once again,by Kurt Wiese.

Freddy the Pig is a hero of over 2 dozen books for the young at heart by Walter R Brooks. Brooks is known also as the man who wrote the story Ed Takes the Pledge on which the classic television series Mr Ed was based.His short story Jimmy Takes Vanishing lessons is often included in anthologies of children's stories as well.