Alexis' Book Blog

Freddy and Mr. Camphor

By Walter R. Brooks

Book Review by Sandra Miller-Louden

3.5 out of 5 stars

Series Book/Children

Since the Freddy Series is found in the children’s section of the library, we’ll call it a children’s book for simplicity’s sake.  However, let me warn you, this series has a wide appeal for adults as well—as we’ll see later in my review.

If you’re not familiar with this series, here’s a quick overview.  There are 26 books in all written between 1927-1958 and they are all anthropomorphic—in other words, the main characters are all animals and they walk, talk and engage in human activities.  Chief among the animals is Freddy the Pig.  In various books Freddy travels (to Florida in one, to the North Pole in another), he opens a detective agency, starts a bank (First Animal Bank of Centerboro), runs a newspaper, goes aloft in a balloon, fights a critter known as an Ignormus and even becomes a caretaker in a mansion belonging to wealthy C. Jimson Camphor when Mr. Camphor is away on business.

And here is where Freddy and Mr. Camphor begins.  Things get complicated from the get go as destructive rats, crabby toads and loudmouth horseflies show up to derail Freddy’s planned peaceful summer of looking after the mansion, reading and engaging in one of his favorite pastimes, painting.  As if this array of animals isn’t enough, the evil—and smelly—Zebedee Winch and his equally disagreeable son Horace show up again, as they did in the very first Freddy book.  (Freddy and Mr. Camphor is Book #11, written in 1944).

Winch has underlying motives to get Freddy fired (chief among them is Winch would like a good pork dinner) from his job and when that happens, Freddy rallies all his friends from the Bean Family Farm (Freddy’s home base) to help make things right.  We see some old favorites in this book—Jinx the wily cat, Alice and Emma the prissy ducks, Charles the pompous rooster, Mr. & Mrs. Webb (you guessed it, married spiders with ever-so-teeny voices!) and my personal favorites, the Mrs. Wiggins, Wogus and Wurtzberger, three amiable (if slightly plodding) cows.

Certain unyielding themes are present in this series.  There is a firm line drawn between right and wrong.  Even when it could harm him in the short term, Freddy is always honest and tries to do the honorable thing.  If reading this series to a child, an adult can find many “teachable moments” to reinforce a point.  There are also subtle observations which author Brooks makes throughout—observations that undoubtedly will go over a child’s head, but will delight adults.  Brooks has little use for wordy people who say nothing and he makes no bones about the fact that he considers most politicians in that category.  In Chapter One, Mr. Weezer, the president of Centerboro Bank (the human being bank) wears “a pair of nose glasses that always fell off when anyone mentioned a sum of money larger than five dollars.”  The swipes that author Brooks takes are understated, but always entertaining. 

In fact, this series is so entertaining that when the series went out of print during the 1970s, many people mourned their loss and frequented old bookstores to find copies.  From a determined group of fans who stayed in touch with Brooks’ widow, a newsletter began in 1984 and The Friends of Freddy had their first convention two years later—and these conventions are still taking place—the next one is in September in upstate New York.  Visit www.friendsoffreddy.org to find out more information, not only about this year’s convention, but about the history of the series, the newsletters and so much more.

While you may not have heard of Walter R. Brooks or the Freddy series, you have probably heard of a Brooks’ short story “Ed Takes the Pledge.”  No?  Well, that short story was the basis for the 1950’s television series, Mr. Ed and even non-baby boomers know “a horse is a horse, of course, of course…”!

I’ve read four Freddy books so far and each has had its own charm.  Obviously, this entire series—and this particular title—are pure escapism, chock full of cliffhanger chapter endings and simple, yet endearing lessons for living life the way Freddy does—honestly, sometimes perilously, not always happily, but always hopefully.  He is the flip side of the crafty, evil pigs of Animal Farm and for that alone, you just have to love him.