Freddy and the Ignormus

This book is very good. I love the interaction between the characters. The fact that the farmer is embarrassed that his animals can talk is hilarious. The story line keeps your attention. There is no boring babbling on and on. So often stories try to delve into needless background information. This book is hard to put down. You’ll want to finish it the first day you pick it up.

A note before the review: the Freddy the Pig books were written during a time when authors of books for children shared the basic assumption that children should grow and expand their vocabularies, not have their ignorance validated. As a result, the language is neither simplified nor limited. In Freddy and the Ignormous, there's something in the Big Woods that is terrifying all the animals on the Bean Farm. While no one has seen the Ignormous clearly, they have received notes from it that threaten dire consequences if they don't bring it food. Led by Freddy the Pig, who alone has the courage to enter the Big Woods to try to find out what the Ignormous is, the animals learn that the fear you face is never as great as the fear you won't. I first read the Freddy the Pig books in the early 1950s. Over fifty years later, I can still enjoy them: they have stood the test of time.

I've read nearly all the Freddy books to my five-year-old son, and if I had to pick a best Freddy book, I think this would be the one. Not for its subject matter--we actually had to stop reading this when my son was four, because the Ignormus scared him--but for the interplay among the characters. It's not a children's book where all the animals get along wonderfully with each other like a '60s commune on laughing gas; it's a book where one animal can express annoyance about another, even if they're best friends. Eventually, however, like in all Freddy books, the animals also accept each other's strengths and imperfections--there are no spotless, faultless heroes or invincibly evil villians here. Jinx the cat's sarcasm, Simon the rat's malevolence, Charles the rooster's profundity--all the characters are in top form, and are hilarious, if understated humor is your thing. (Oh yes, Theodore the frog is in there too, to stick a pin in Freddy's occasional pretentiousness. Brilliant.)

Highly recomended for all ages, Caleb A. Craig.

I consider this the best book in my all-time favorite children's book series. It has humor, wonderful characters, a tight plot, and even a hint of symbolism worthy of another American classic, Moby Dick.

Published between 1927 and 1958, the 26 books in the "Freddy the Pig" series are perhaps the most consistently well written children's book series of the 20th century. By turns, Freddy is a detective, a poet, a pilot, a "Pied Piper," a football player--you get the idea. His barnyard friends are fully fleshed and memorable. Ignormus is one of the best Freddys and really keeps kids reading. Freddy has to put on his detective hat and find out who is terrorizing the animals in the "big woods"--and why. If you have kids from 5 to 14, they'll love these books. Brooks was apparently the first children's writer to write in the vernacular and use "slang" -- that dreaded word! -- and he's just as funny today as he ever was. ALSO: If you read the books and love 'em, find the Friends of Freddy website and chatroom - we'd love to meet you. AND we're having a convention in October in upstate New York (the big woods) that you can attend. But most important --read the books, especially to your kids. Connie Arnold, Secretary-Treasurer, Friends of Freddy, 5A Laurel Hill Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770. We're a nonprofit literary club devoted to the preservation and perpetuation of the writings of Walter R. Brooks (who also wrote the Mr. Ed short stories on which the famous TV series was based).