Freddy Plays Football (Freddy the Pig)

What else can I say? Yet again, my 7-year-old son and I devoured another Freddy the Pig book. This guy knows how to write and how to tell a great tale while slipping in tidbits for all ages.

Despite the title of the book, and despite the title of this review, this sixteenth volume in the Freddy the Pig series is much less about football, and much more about the Bean farm animals saving the day once more. This time the antagonist (Freddy readers like learning new words) is the dishonest Mr. Doty. He's so dishonest that Doty isn't even his real name. Animal-hater Mr. Garble recruits Mr Doty to pretend he's Mrs. Bean's long lost brother, to whom the Beans owe a large amount of money. In order to prevent the Beans from paying him, Freddy steals all the Beans' money from the bank. Where he hides it is for you to find out when you read the story. There's a great deal to learn in this volume, including why spiders like to hang from the ceiling (try it yourself, the author suggests). A child will also learn many new words: felicitous, sanctum, recumbent, transgression, malefactor, culinary, pecuniary, habiliments, prejudice, hackneyed, and speach impediment. We also find out that none of the prisoners in the Centerboro jail got through third grade, and that the prisoners love to play hopscotch. And we learn that under the laws of a free people, everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty. There are also some fresh new Freddyisms here, as when Freddy states that Mr. Bean "is one of the best people in the world at not saying anything." And when Mr. Bean says to Freddy that he knows "you're not guilty, but don't do it again." The principal audience for the Freddy the Pig series is 7 to 10 year olds, but they are also very fun for adults to re-read, too.

Walter Brooks begins this sixteenth tale of our indomitable porcine poet with a great stir on the Bean Farm. Mrs. Bean's long lost brother has been discovered, and is coming to the farm for a reunion. When Aaron Doty makes his appearance, it is with mixed reviews. He is generally nice enough, although he has a marked affection for telling tall tales, but he has a suspicious mean streak. In the final analysis, the animals come to suspect that he is a fraud, taking advantage of the fact that Mrs. Bean's brother left when she was quite young. When they find out that Doty is conspiring with sneaky Mr. Garble from Centerboro, they are convinced.But what should they do? The Beans owe Doty half of Mrs. Bean's inheritance. $5,000 dollars that long ago was put into the farm. They will have to borrow the money from the bank, and that means the Bean's will be near destitute. Even when the animals trap Doty in one lie after another, Mrs. Bean is adamant. No matter how rotten the man is, as long as he is her brother he is entitled to the money. Freddy will have to go to unheard of extremes to make this problem come out right.One the lighter side, Freddy manages to be drafted into the Centerboro High School football team. It seems that pigs make superb tackles, and the Centerboro team is in sad shape. To make matters worse, their archrivals from Tushville have several players on their roster who are old enough to be teachers. Whenever Freddy can make time, he is either in classes of at football practice. Hopefully he will be able to help the Centerboro team improve their hapless record.As usual, Brooks and illustrator Kurt Wiese manage to recreate one of the strangest fantasy worlds ever put into children's books. Animals talk, often making more sense than do their human counterparts. Freddy is part poet, part banker, part newspaperman, and now, part left tackle. Spiders go for trips to California, and the Centerboro jail is better than most four star resorts. Through it all come positive lessons about friendship and support, honesty (well, sometimes), and an abiding belief that a determined effort will turn things around. Hard as it may be to believe, you can do a lot worse than learning your values from a pig!

As usual, Freddy gets into trouble and into the adventure by trying to help his friends. In this case, Mrs. Bean's long-lost brother turns up and wants his share of the inheritance, something that will bankrupt Mr. Bean and possibly ruin the farm. At the same time, he is needed to help the Centerboro high school football team beat its rival, Tushville, who has ringers playing on their team. The action is fast and furious, and a delight to read. Brooks and his Freddy books are a godsend to parents who read to their children.