Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars

[Editor's note: The following is a combined review with FREDDY AND THE FLYING SAUCER and FREDDY THE PILOT.] -- These are but three of the twenty-six works Brooks wrote between 1926 and 1955 about the "Renaissance" pig Freddy. Hailing from the Bean farm near Centerboro, New York, Freddy spends most of his time being an amateur sleuth around the neighborhood. These are works our parents and grandparents may have read, and although such things as Postal Zones and the War Department have changed, the author's imaginative plots, settings, and characters are delightful. In these three works we find such things as: Martians (who are about only three feet tall), learning to play baseball and becoming a pitcher's worst nightmare, rabbits and skunks parachuting from a plane (piloted by Freddy) using umbrellas, skunks fighting with quarterstaffs, and Freddy fending off foreign agents trying to steal flying saucer plans. McDonough's reading is sublime. Poised and confident, he reads these works at an even pace, bringing all the characters to life with his versatile and capable voice. Refreshingly fun and imaginative, these works are made especially so by McDonough's narrative skill. M.T.F. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine