How did it not bother me, when I was young and fell in love with this series, that the Beans eat ham and chicken?

Other than that, these are fun books. I love the personalities of the different animals, and the sheriff's jail (he never gets a name, interestingly enough), and the amusing drawings (the ant, Jerry Peters, lolling on his back is a hoot), the gentle satire of human customs & motivations.

I do wish that there was more about the newspaper business here. There is a bit about how the paper can be used as a tool by influential politicians if the publisher is weak or bribed, and a bit about whether the focus should be investigation and politics or gossip and poetry submissions. But nothing about freedom of the press, or other journalism concerns. Still, as an introduction for kids age 8-11 or so, it's ok. Or at least it was in the days before online news... might be fun to talk with your child about the similarities and differences of the news industry as practiced in the days of the book and now.

In fact, this is actually older than it might seem, because the scrap iron drive was done for patriotism, to get planes and bullets to our soldiers in WWII. Yes, this was originally published in 1943... not many of us actually read it new when we were children!

But honestly, except for the adventure of how the animals save the day, this is best read as nostalgia by the people who actually remember the days of family farms and print newspapers and bears in the woods. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will read more from the series, but I can't actually think of which of you to recommend it to. ( )

As the title says, this time Freddy the pig becomes the editor of his own newspaper for the Bean Farm animals. ( )

Except for the scrap drive, this could have been written in 2012 instead of 1943. A rich person tries to use the media to distort the truth and rig an election. As in all the Freddy books, the animals triumph. I'm not sure the United States is going to be that lucky. ( )