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Freddy the Pig #12
Freddy and the Popinjay (Audio Book)
A robin with poor eyesight has mistaken Freddy the pigs tail for a worm. Putting aside the poem he is writing, Freddy decides to help the poor bird solve his problem. But the solution just seems to lead to bigger problems. For over half a century, the Freddy books have delighted generations of children.
4 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1945
About the author
Walter Rollin Brooks
62 books69 followersWalter Rollin Brooks (January 9, 1886 – August 17, 1958) was an American writer best remembered for his short stories and children's books, particularly those about Freddy the Pig and other anthropomorphic animal inhabitants of the "Bean farm" in upstate New York.
Born in Rome, New York, Brooks attended college at the University of Rochester and subsequently studied homeopathic medicine in New York City. He dropped out after two years, however, and returned to Rochester, where he married his first wife, Anne Shepard, in 1909. Brooks found employment with an advertising agency in Utica, and then "retired" in 1911, evidently because he came into a considerable inheritance. His retirement was not permanent: in 1917, he went to work for the American Red Cross and later did editorial work for several magazines, including The New Yorker.
In 1940, Brooks turned to his own writing for his full-time occupation. Walter married his second wife, Dorothy Collins, following the death of Anne in 1952.
The first works Brooks published were poems and short stories. His short story "Ed Takes the Pledge" about a talking horse was the basis for the 1960s television comedy series Mister Ed (credit for creating the characters is given in each episode to "Walter Brooks"). His most enduring works, however, are the 26 books he wrote about Freddy the Pig and his friends.
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Born in Rome, New York, Brooks attended college at the University of Rochester and subsequently studied homeopathic medicine in New York City. He dropped out after two years, however, and returned to Rochester, where he married his first wife, Anne Shepard, in 1909. Brooks found employment with an advertising agency in Utica, and then "retired" in 1911, evidently because he came into a considerable inheritance. His retirement was not permanent: in 1917, he went to work for the American Red Cross and later did editorial work for several magazines, including The New Yorker.
In 1940, Brooks turned to his own writing for his full-time occupation. Walter married his second wife, Dorothy Collins, following the death of Anne in 1952.
The first works Brooks published were poems and short stories. His short story "Ed Takes the Pledge" about a talking horse was the basis for the 1960s television comedy series Mister Ed (credit for creating the characters is given in each episode to "Walter Brooks"). His most enduring works, however, are the 26 books he wrote about Freddy the Pig and his friends.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 9, 2018
Can a Leopard Change Its Spots? Should it?
Just as Freddy the Pig is finishing a poem in which he yearns for a useful tail like a dog or cat's, a robin called JJ Pomeroy mistakes the poet's short curly tail for a worm and gives it a painful tug. The bird apologetically explains that he's near-sighted and constantly taking inedible things home to his children. He also tells Freddy (after the pig recites his poem) that he ought to be proud of having the only purposeless tail on Mr. Bean's farm. Freddy is much impressed, nearly tears up his poem, and offers to help the robin get a pair of tiny glasses from the town optometrist. On the way to Centerboro to fulfill his offer the next day, Freddy is ambushed by Jimmy Witherspoon and his slingshot. Jimmy is the son of a Xenas Witherspoon, a skin flint farmer who refuses to pay for clothes or shoes for the boy so that he's always barefoot and raggedy so that he's ostracized at school, so that his only entertainment is watching animals jump when struck by pebbles from his slingshot. Later that day, Freddy and JJ run into Mrs. Church, the local rich woman who's come to town (driven on a tandem bicycle by her chauffeur because the war has made saving gasoline a patriotic priority) to get wedding invitations printed for her niece. The invitations will display the Church coat of arms (which her husband recently bought) featuring an unknown bird which Freddy is inspired to call a popinjay: because it's an imaginary bird, no one can say it's not a popinjay!
Thus begin the three main plot lines of Walter R. Brooks' Freddy and the Popinjay (1945), which deals comically and complexly with themes relating to identity and change. Should we be content with ourselves as we are? Are we capable of changing ourselves for the better? If we change our outer appearances, does that mean we also change our inner selves? Do we have the right or responsibility to "help" other people change? Should people be given second chances to improve? Etc. The story produces comical or interesting developments like the transformation of a robin into an imaginary bird; a new fashion by which live birds are paid to act like ladies' hats; a war between farm animals and a lonely and indomitable boy; an Arthurian jousting tournament featuring pillows, a duck pond, and bovine chargers; a school run by bears; a wild cat family that wants a new start (the parents promising that their kids won't eat their fellow pupils anymore); a milliner who decides she'd rather walk around in the woods than make a fortune; an overly eager to help wasp; an elephant trap that turns into a thinking hole; and more and more and more.
Like Brooks' other Freddy books, this one is very funny in many different ways. It features whimsical information about animal nature (e.g., "Wasps are no diplomats") as well as satirical takes on human nature (e.g., "Being a banker's wife, she was very difficult to please"). Its humor ranges from the philosophical (Hank the simple horse musing, "It's kind of hard to tell, sometimes, though, whether it's somebody outside that pushed you or somebody inside") to the farcical (Freddy and his friends waking Jimmy up every half hour all night by howling or mooing etc. so as to make him too tired to use his slingshot on them). Much of the humor focuses on Freddy, as when the not overly old pig writes a poem about his lost youth, "When I was a piglet, the grass was much greener," or attends the wedding of Mrs. Church's niece and is mistaken for an ambassador and then partakes in the nuptial fare: "Freddy, like most pigs, was always up in front when the refreshments were handed round."
Like other Freddy books, this one also works in much good-hearted and helpful wisdom (e.g., "Freddy did not think she looked funny any more than most people in Centerboro, because if you like people a lot it doesn't matter what they look like") and vivid description ("Mrs. Church laughed harder than ever, and when she laughed, she shook and all the ten-cent store diamonds sparkled and glittered in the sunshine, until she was quite blinding").
One of the interesting features of the Freddy books is that, after the first three or so, in which the animals can only talk to other animals (humans being too dense to understand animal speech), Freddy and his animal (and insect) friends can speak with people as well as with other animals. It makes for a charming narrative world.
John McDonough is, once again, the perfect reader for a Freddy audiobook, his slightly high and rough voice seriously enjoying Brooks' fantasy fun and never over-doing anything, modifying his voice slightly for rich old ladies, spunky mice, conceited robins, obstreperous boys, mercurial pigs, and so on. All just right.
People who like things like Charlotte's Web (with more humor and less pathos) and Dr. Doolittle (with less traveling around the world) should give Freddy books like this one a try. I am happy to be rediscovering them now after having forgotten them for 45 years.
Just as Freddy the Pig is finishing a poem in which he yearns for a useful tail like a dog or cat's, a robin called JJ Pomeroy mistakes the poet's short curly tail for a worm and gives it a painful tug. The bird apologetically explains that he's near-sighted and constantly taking inedible things home to his children. He also tells Freddy (after the pig recites his poem) that he ought to be proud of having the only purposeless tail on Mr. Bean's farm. Freddy is much impressed, nearly tears up his poem, and offers to help the robin get a pair of tiny glasses from the town optometrist. On the way to Centerboro to fulfill his offer the next day, Freddy is ambushed by Jimmy Witherspoon and his slingshot. Jimmy is the son of a Xenas Witherspoon, a skin flint farmer who refuses to pay for clothes or shoes for the boy so that he's always barefoot and raggedy so that he's ostracized at school, so that his only entertainment is watching animals jump when struck by pebbles from his slingshot. Later that day, Freddy and JJ run into Mrs. Church, the local rich woman who's come to town (driven on a tandem bicycle by her chauffeur because the war has made saving gasoline a patriotic priority) to get wedding invitations printed for her niece. The invitations will display the Church coat of arms (which her husband recently bought) featuring an unknown bird which Freddy is inspired to call a popinjay: because it's an imaginary bird, no one can say it's not a popinjay!
Thus begin the three main plot lines of Walter R. Brooks' Freddy and the Popinjay (1945), which deals comically and complexly with themes relating to identity and change. Should we be content with ourselves as we are? Are we capable of changing ourselves for the better? If we change our outer appearances, does that mean we also change our inner selves? Do we have the right or responsibility to "help" other people change? Should people be given second chances to improve? Etc. The story produces comical or interesting developments like the transformation of a robin into an imaginary bird; a new fashion by which live birds are paid to act like ladies' hats; a war between farm animals and a lonely and indomitable boy; an Arthurian jousting tournament featuring pillows, a duck pond, and bovine chargers; a school run by bears; a wild cat family that wants a new start (the parents promising that their kids won't eat their fellow pupils anymore); a milliner who decides she'd rather walk around in the woods than make a fortune; an overly eager to help wasp; an elephant trap that turns into a thinking hole; and more and more and more.
Like Brooks' other Freddy books, this one is very funny in many different ways. It features whimsical information about animal nature (e.g., "Wasps are no diplomats") as well as satirical takes on human nature (e.g., "Being a banker's wife, she was very difficult to please"). Its humor ranges from the philosophical (Hank the simple horse musing, "It's kind of hard to tell, sometimes, though, whether it's somebody outside that pushed you or somebody inside") to the farcical (Freddy and his friends waking Jimmy up every half hour all night by howling or mooing etc. so as to make him too tired to use his slingshot on them). Much of the humor focuses on Freddy, as when the not overly old pig writes a poem about his lost youth, "When I was a piglet, the grass was much greener," or attends the wedding of Mrs. Church's niece and is mistaken for an ambassador and then partakes in the nuptial fare: "Freddy, like most pigs, was always up in front when the refreshments were handed round."
Like other Freddy books, this one also works in much good-hearted and helpful wisdom (e.g., "Freddy did not think she looked funny any more than most people in Centerboro, because if you like people a lot it doesn't matter what they look like") and vivid description ("Mrs. Church laughed harder than ever, and when she laughed, she shook and all the ten-cent store diamonds sparkled and glittered in the sunshine, until she was quite blinding").
One of the interesting features of the Freddy books is that, after the first three or so, in which the animals can only talk to other animals (humans being too dense to understand animal speech), Freddy and his animal (and insect) friends can speak with people as well as with other animals. It makes for a charming narrative world.
John McDonough is, once again, the perfect reader for a Freddy audiobook, his slightly high and rough voice seriously enjoying Brooks' fantasy fun and never over-doing anything, modifying his voice slightly for rich old ladies, spunky mice, conceited robins, obstreperous boys, mercurial pigs, and so on. All just right.
People who like things like Charlotte's Web (with more humor and less pathos) and Dr. Doolittle (with less traveling around the world) should give Freddy books like this one a try. I am happy to be rediscovering them now after having forgotten them for 45 years.
April 7, 2022
Another great Freddy the Pig book! In this one, Freddy helps a near-sighted robin get glasses, helps a neglected and aggressive boy learn to get along with others, and even figures out how to silence the extra-argumentative owl Uncle Solomon!
Our whole family listened to this audiobook in the car, and we all loved it. (It was my husband’s first Freddy book.) John McDonough’s narration was, as usual, a treat. We laughed a lot, and at least the parents really appreciated the astute observations about life—it teaches the reader a lot without feeling at all preachy. I still think that my favorite Freddy book is Freddy and the Bean Home News, but this one is really good too.
Our whole family listened to this audiobook in the car, and we all loved it. (It was my husband’s first Freddy book.) John McDonough’s narration was, as usual, a treat. We laughed a lot, and at least the parents really appreciated the astute observations about life—it teaches the reader a lot without feeling at all preachy. I still think that my favorite Freddy book is Freddy and the Bean Home News, but this one is really good too.
July 19, 2019
Of all the Freddy books I've read this one was the weakest. Even as a child I thought it didn't hold together well. Parts were still fun, such as when the hat flew out of the sheriff's car, but it lacked the action that made the others fun.
December 13, 2012
One of the most beautiful birds on the Bean farm is of a species that you won't see anywhere else: the popinjay! The popinjay, you say? What kind of bird is that? He's an extremely unusual one, certainly, for he wears glasses and hires himself out as a hat! I'm sure you're shaking your head at my nonsensical assertions, but I assure you, they're true! If you doubt me, read on for yourself in this rollicking Bean Farm adventure. Freddy the Pig, that poetical little porker, and the other Bean animals learn some invaluable lessons about the importance of "fine feathers" and "changing spots." Along the way, they enjoy themselves and help out a few less fortunate friends, too.
As always, this Freddy the Pig book was a delight to read and I highly recommend it to readers of all ages who are looking for a little bit of silly fun and a wealth of good sense, hidden in a bit of nonsense!
As always, this Freddy the Pig book was a delight to read and I highly recommend it to readers of all ages who are looking for a little bit of silly fun and a wealth of good sense, hidden in a bit of nonsense!
June 22, 2010
This was our first foray into audio books, and it saved my sanity on an eight hour car trip last week.
It was also the first Freddy the Detective book for all of us, and I found it quite charming. Freddy is an intelligent pig, lazy, but with a trotter in every pie, involved in all the doings at the Bean's farm, a place where all the animals talk, not just to each other, but to humans too (it is not revealed whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Bean eat meat, and if so where it comes from). I don't know if it's typical of the 20-something book series, which was written from the 1920s-1950s, but I found it funny and shot through with a pleasant folksy wisdom.
The narrator, John McDonough, is fantastic.
It was also the first Freddy the Detective book for all of us, and I found it quite charming. Freddy is an intelligent pig, lazy, but with a trotter in every pie, involved in all the doings at the Bean's farm, a place where all the animals talk, not just to each other, but to humans too (it is not revealed whether or not Mr. and Mrs. Bean eat meat, and if so where it comes from). I don't know if it's typical of the 20-something book series, which was written from the 1920s-1950s, but I found it funny and shot through with a pleasant folksy wisdom.
The narrator, John McDonough, is fantastic.
August 3, 2022
Not my favorite Freddy book,but still a gently humorous, nostalgic and enjoyable read. The plot seems to wander a bit in this one, but does come to a satisfactory conclusion. The Freddy books are nice books for young people, but only if they can read a book without expecting constant action-packed sequences.
June 24, 2015
Another hilarious installment of life on the Bean farm. As usual, I chuckled through this book, and almost all the personalities rang true to life. And, of course, Freddy's poetry was quite entertaining.
May 10, 2012
Freddy is a quite inventive pig who solves the problems of his neighbors with kindness and understanding.
October 20, 2014
i liked it
February 12, 2019
I liked it
May 27, 2022
I didn't read these as a child, but I was raised with expectations, values, and perspectives similar enough that they feel like comfort reads.
For example, Zenas Witherspoon, the miser, needs to learn to at least buy his son clothing decent for school and his wife clothing decent enough to visit friends.
And the fine-feathered birds need to learn not to be swelled-headed popinjays.
And Freddy needs to learn not to take himself too seriously as a poet, and seriously enough as a pig. "And it is perfectly true that if you don't take yourself seriously, nobody else will. It's hard to know jut where to draw the line."
For example, Zenas Witherspoon, the miser, needs to learn to at least buy his son clothing decent for school and his wife clothing decent enough to visit friends.
And the fine-feathered birds need to learn not to be swelled-headed popinjays.
And Freddy needs to learn not to take himself too seriously as a poet, and seriously enough as a pig. "And it is perfectly true that if you don't take yourself seriously, nobody else will. It's hard to know jut where to draw the line."
January 14, 2017
This was more of a 2.5 but I decided to be kind. This was more overtly preachy and less of a decent story. The robin husband and wife discover the allure of fine feathers and only come to their senses when they get laughed at. The bratty boy next door gets tamed, so to speak, when the animals invite him to come play and give him a prize of clothes. His notoriously tightfisted father gets a talking to from Mrs. Bean. The ending just kind of stopped without feeling it it closed the story up which had been closed a few pages earlier.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2018
I nearly forgot how much I enjoyed these books when I was younger. It is a wonderful series where people and animals communicate with courtesy and respect. The Pig is a problem solving banker. This book includes some robins who become puffed up in their decorations, a stingy man who learns how to care for his family, a boy who gains confidence and friends, and wildcats who learn to behave with other animals. For fans of Vintage stories for young people learning to think for themselves, and having a moral to the story should love these books.
May 6, 2017
Freddy the pig and his barnyard friends help a disadvantaged boy and fiend off a wildcat that wants to move into the neighborhood.
Good thing: The scene where the boy and a dog, each atop a cow, have a jousting match is the perfect summary of why I enjoy these Freddy books.
Bad thing: This book had a Moral of the Story was which was hit a little too heavily.
Turns out I have a fourth Freddy book so I'll be reading that one as well. I'm a pig fan in general as well as a fan of Freddy the pig.
Good thing: The scene where the boy and a dog, each atop a cow, have a jousting match is the perfect summary of why I enjoy these Freddy books.
Bad thing: This book had a Moral of the Story was which was hit a little too heavily.
Turns out I have a fourth Freddy book so I'll be reading that one as well. I'm a pig fan in general as well as a fan of Freddy the pig.
November 9, 2022
This one has been accused of being overly moralistic, but I'm mostly okay with it, in spite of occasional mild awkwardness. The Jimmy Witherspoon plot actually shows considerable emotional intelligence on Brooks' part, I feel.
July 12, 2018
This is cute.
August 16, 2018
There are some good lessons in this one.
August 28, 2025
A bird gets glasses! Mrs Wiggins tries to swim! They turn a bully into a good boy
and make some fashion statements!
and make some fashion statements!
October 13, 2025
Another great Freddy in the books.
February 13, 2024
Enjoying a lazy afternoon lying in the field, Freddy falls asleep while writing a poem. A painful tug on his tail wakes him up. J. J. Pomeroy, a near-sighted robin, thought that Freddy’s curly tail was a juicy worm. Freddy suggests that J. J. get a pair of glasses. He takes the robin to the oculist, persuades Mr. Watt to make the bird a bird-sized pair, and lends J. J. the money to pay for all of it. Now, how will J. J. raise the eight dollars he owes Freddy? It seems unlikely that the Pomeroy family can find enough angle worms to sell to the local fishermen. Again, Freddy comes up with the best idea. Ladies’ hats with birds on them are all the rage. And, wealthy Mrs. Church’s family crest has a popinjay. With her niece’s wedding coming soon, surely Mrs. Church will hire a real popinjay that can double as a hat and sing at the wedding ceremony. The hat maker transforms the robin into a popinjay by sewing fancy plumage on his head and into his tail feathers, and Freddy sets the plan in motion.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com
May 5, 2023
The Freddy books have been my go-to for the past 50 years whenever I feel blue or need to get myself out of a bad mood. They've never failed me yet. Love this series.
October 19, 2016
Freddy is a rare extroverted pig with intelligence and having a great sense of humour. I can read any of Walter R. Brooks's books on Freddy cheerfully.
April 8, 2017
I read the Freddy the Pig books aloud to my kids at night. We usually read a chapter after reading an assortment of picture books. We all love these books! I don't know why I had never heard of them before we picked up the first one, but they should be more widely read. We have loved every one of them! I often recommend them to other parents and hope they and their children enjoy them as much as we do.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews