Rereading: FREDDY AND THE MEN FROM MARS by Walter R. Brooks

The twenty-second in the Freddy series continues some of the space-travel themes of the twentieth book, Freddy and the Space Ship, playing on a popular interest of kids and adults when it was published in 1954. Herbert Garble, a long-time Freddy villain, has “discovered” a group of “Martians” who supposedly landed in their flying saucer, as pictured above on the book’s cover. Freddy readers will soon recognize these creatures disguised as Martians, also long-time villains in the series, but Garble convinces the Boomschmidt circus to put them on display in his side show, allowing Garble to collect barrels-full of change in payment to see them, and the attraction draws huge crowds. Freddy and his friends on the Bean Farm and in the circus know there’s trickery involved, but can’t do much to stop it without ruining the reputation of the circus.

Meanwhile, as can be seen on the endpaper design by the ever-creative Kurt Wiese, another saucer arrives with real Martians, who have come to investigate the sideshow attraction, and Freddy and his friends soon become their allies. Plans are hatched to replace Garble’s fakes with the real thing, and cutting him out of the deal, but of course Garble has other ideas.

Great fun, even as the series gets sillier, and recommended.

Freddy and the Men from Mars by Walter R Brooks

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