On the fifth day of Christmas, Overlook Press gave to me …

Welcome back book lovers! You’ve probably already heard by now, but Overlook is ringing in the holiday season this year with twelve days of literary gift giving. We’re putting on our Santa caps every Monday through Friday until December 23^rd, carefully selecting themed book sets to give away to our dedicated fans and readers. Perfect gifts for the oncoming snowy days of winter and the inevitable hours of holiday travel, this week’s giveaways have included books by Charles Portis, designers Milton Glaser and Eva Zeisel, a collection of white knuckle historical mysteries and true crime thrillers, and newsy reads for the journalism buff. Naughty or nice, everyone is eligible to win. Thanks to all who have helped spread the word through comments and tweets, and congratulations to yesterday’s lucky winner, @wrikent3500.

Here at Overlook, there’s something about the winter holidays that brings out our collective inner child. Maybe we’ve just watched too many animated Christmas specials, but December makes us yearn for the simple pleasures of childhood. For today’s giveaway, we’re going to indulge our juvenile sides, and celebrate some of the best children’s books and young adult literature in the Overlook library. Although they make perfect gifts for the kids on your holiday shopping list, if you’re anything like us you’ll want to save these picture books and YA reads for yourself.

Let’s Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes, written by Robert Forbes and illustrated by Ronald Searle combines mischievous rhymes and delightful illustrations, making it a great gift for poetry lovers of all ages. With over thirty delicious poems and zany illustrations featuring critters large and small (plus an original poster!), this madcap menagerie is sure to satisfy readers aged seven to seventy.

Are you a friend of Freddy? Freddy the Pig is one of history’s most iconic characters in children’s literature, and Freddy the Detective is a classic example of Freddy at his best. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, Freddy and his partner Mrs. Wiggins the Cow team up to investigate a series of disappearances on the Bean farm. Walter Brooks is the author of more than twenty-five books in the Freddy series, and teamed with Caldecott and Newbery winning illustrator Kurt Wiese, this hilarious misadventure is the perfect introduction to the classic series for a new generation of readers.

True Grit returns to the Overlook Christmas giveaway list, today as the perfect gift for the adventure-seeking YA reader. Charles Portis’s story of fourteen year old Mattie Ross’s overpowering effort to avenge the murder of her father is a contemporary classic that's sure to resonate deeply with fans of To Kill a Mockinbird and the novels of Mark Twain.

To enter, simply:

1. Comment on this post

2. Tweet at us using the hashtag #OverlookChristmas

3. Leave a comment on our Facebook page

You can enter once in each area until 8 AM tomorrow morning, and we will be announcing a winner in tomorrow’s post. After all entries are received, we choose a winner using random.org. Please leave an email address when entering so we can contact you if you’ve won.

Happy travels to the Friends of Freddy!

Happy travels to everyone traveling to the Friends of Freddy convention this weekend. We hope you're enjoying the new paperback versions of the Freddy the Pig books as much as we are--and here are some other fans as well!

From The Oregonian:

"This delightful series for children of all ages was written between 1927-58 by Brooks, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and has been brought back in print by The Overlook Press. Freddy the Politician and Freddy and the Bean Home News are key books in the series and as fun and relevant today as when they were first published. In Freddy the Politician, compared favorably to George Orwell's 1984 by critics, Freddy helps his friend Mrs. Wiggins the cow get elected president of the First Animal Republic and stops some woodpeckers from taking over the farm. In Freddy and the Bean Home News, the animals start their own newspaper because the one run by humans isn't printing the truth.”

And from the Children's Book Almanac, which celebrated the Freddy books on Walter Brooks' birthday this January 9:

“All of these books prove that animal fantasy, with just the right amount of humor, can entertain adults and children in equal measure. Brooks brought American homespun humor and a profound understanding of children to his books.”

Happy birthday, Walter R. Brooks!

Many Overlook fans are familiar with our company because of Walter R. Brooks. We published a biography of the great writer a few years ago, called Talking Animals and Others: The Life and Work of Walter R. Brooks, and we recently published his beloved Freddy the Pig novels for the first time in paperback.

He's been a great cultural influence (he inspired the character of Mr. Ed, too!) and in honor of his birthday, we're giving away a copy of FREDDY THE DETECTIVE. Leave a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter to win!

Happy reading! Hug a talking animal today in honor of Walter R. Brooks.

On the seventh day of Christmas, Overlook Press gave to me...

...A NEW SET OF "FREDDY THE PIG" BOOKS--NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK!

Okay. That was a rather unwieldy giveaway to fit into the song. But after 75 years, people still love Freddy, and we'd love to give this set of three new paperbacks to a longtime fan or a new reader!

First, congratulations to Antoine D., who yesterday won a signed copy of THE GILDED STAGE: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF OPERA. Also, a reminder: TRUE GRIT giveaways can be entered through Thursday--prizes include posters, movie passes and book giveaways. Go here to learn more and enter!

Up now: a set of new-in-paperback young reader classics from Walter R. Brooks' beloved FREDDY THE PIG series. We just released Freddy the Politician, Freddy the Detective and Freddy and the Bean Home News in paperback for the very first time, and are thrilled to introduce Freddy to a new generation of readers.

But you don't need to trust us on the lasting appeal of Freddy. Here are a few of his fans in the media:

“Freddy’s readers have called him a porcine prince…Walter R. Brooks’s gentle genius shines even brighter.” --The New York Times

“Brooks’ series is full of humor and warmth and, most importantly, the underlying assurance that no matter how threatening life may get, we have the ability to survive and prosper. Even better, the books declare that life is fun—particularly on the Bean Farm in upstate New York…Freddy the Pig is one of the great characters in American children’s literature.” --FIRSTS Magazine

“Freddy is simply one of the greatest characters in children’s literature!” --School Library Journal

“The American version of great English classics such as the Pooh books or The Wind in the Willows.” --The New York Times Book Review

TO WIN: Leave a blog comment, Tweet this contest, or leave a comment on our Facebook page. You can enter once in every area and we'll announce the winners tomorrow morning as we announce what you can look forward to for the sixth day of Overlook Christmas!

We have many more giveaways to come as the holiday season kicks into high gear. Don't forget to check back every day!

Previously:
Nonesuch Dickens Christmas Books
Autographed Bliss, Remembered
Penny Vincenzi novels
Autographed Drawing is Thinking
True Grit, True Grit, TRUE GRIT! (ongoing)
The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera

FREDDY THE PIG Featured in The Globe and Mail

Sherie Posesorski of The Globe and Mail in Toronto pays tribute to Freddy the Pig: "When New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof listed "the best kids' books ever," I was thrilled to see that my very, very favourite book series as a child - the 26 Freddy the Pig books, written by Walter R. Brooks from 1927 to 1958 - were Kristofs "very favourites" too, "funny, beautifully written gems." The series centred on the comic adventures of a talking pig and his equally chatty animal friends, living on a farm in upstate New York, owned by the only miser with words in the series, Mr. Bean, who was proud yet slightly embarrassed that his animals could talk. And could they talk! Their acerbic, witty, shrewd conversation is as fast-mouthed and sharply funny as the Marx Brothers', as aphoristic and gimlet-eyed astute as Noel Coward's, and yet always affectionate and forgiving. Unlike many series which, over time, become forced and formulaic, the Freddy books got better book by book; the characterization of Freddy and his farm-animal friends richer - a persuasive blend of animal and human nature; the writing and adventurous storylines ever more amusing, clever and keenly satirical.

Freddy's fans over the decades include literary heavyweight Lionel Trilling, who described the series as "delightful," Lionel Gelber prizewinning journalist Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost) who has called Freddy, "that paragon of porkers ... a Renaissance pig" and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, who acquired the movie rights. All the accolades, devoted fans and steady sales did not prevent the series from going out of print. It took the efforts of Toronto playwright Dave Carley, who founded the Friends of Freddy in 1984, to give the series the attention and profile that would bring it back into print. As fortunate Freddy readers would have it, the series turned out to be the favourite as well of former Penguin Books CEO Peter Mayer. Calling Freddy "one of the great figures in American children's literature," as publisher of Overlook Press, he bought the rights and the books are now available in facsimile hardcover reprints and trade paperbacks - which reproduce the mischievous, delectably unforgettable black and white illustrations of Kurt Wiese. The best introduction to the series is Freddy the Detective. And where to go from there? Every Freddy fan has favourites. . . I grew up on the Freddy books, and I wanted to be like Freddy when I grew up, to be up to any challenge despite my many fears and insecurities. I wanted to have a life like his, full of possibility and adventure and surrounded by a circle of encouraging friends who knew me through and through, as I did them, providing an affectionate dose of needed reality - and rescue, too, whenever necessary. Together, we could face anything, even ignormuses and power crazed woodpeckers!"