Welcome to my website

Thanks for stopping by the website of Martha Freeman, author of books for kids of all ages. Click on the Books icon above to learn about all her books, including  If You’re Going to a March, Zap!, The Orphan and the Mouse and the Secret Cookie Club adventures. To buy any book, click on the image.

Buy this book!

Or you just might be haunted by a mouse

Blood- and mayhem-free, my latest book, Trashed, is a funny story about an 11-year-old boy, Arthur, who works in his family’s junk store and wonders if he’ll ever be good at anything besides customer service. Then, with the help of his best friend, Veda, and a rodent ghost that is inexplicably haunting him, he not only uncovers a mystery, he realizes he is the only person with a chance to solve it.

",,, a story of family and community relationships that is a tour de force of small, beautifully calibrated effects." The Horn Book

“… a delightful mystery that will lure in young sleuths.” Kirkus Reviews

How to be awesome in only 20 chapters

Born Curious contains the true stories of twenty girls who grew up to be awesome scientists. Some were born with privilege. Some were poor. Some were born in peacetime, some during terrible conflict. Some were always brainiacs. Others struggled to learn. One thing they had in common? They were born curious! This is an inspiring look at their lives, challenges and accomplishments.

“An inspiring look at women who realized curiosity plus tenacity equals success.” Kirkus Reviews

Will the sixth-grade play be

or not be?

That is the question.

When Miss Magnus breaks her leg, eleven-year-old Noah McNichol and the rest of the Sixth-Grade Players are left without a director for their production of Hamlet. Coach Fig volunteers to direct, even though he doesn’t know upstage from downstage. Then, out of nowhere, a strangely dressed old guy named Mike appears. He tells Noah he has theater experience, before disappearing—poof. Noah has investigating to do and decisions to make. Like, does he care that their new director might be a ghost? And who is Mike and why has he decided to help? Only one thing is clear: The show must go on.

The play’s the thing, on the boards and…beyond. — Kirkus Reviews

A suspenseful, silly story full of humor and heart that will make a theater lover of any young reader. -- Booklist

Who turned out the lights?

Luis Cardenal is toasting a Pop-Tart when a power outage strikes Hampton, New Jersey. Elevators and gas pumps fail right away; soon cell phones die and grocery shelves empty. Cold and in the dark, people begin to get desperate. 

Luis likes to know how things work, and the blackout gets him wondering: Where does the city’s electricity come from? What would cause it to shut down?

Click on the link here to learn more about the making of ZAP — an electrifying mystery in which two can-do sleuths embark on a high-tech urban adventure to answer an age-old question: Who turned out the lights?

How do you make a book, anyway?

With a little help from her friends, Martha made a two-minute slide show to answer the age-old question. Click on the link to see it and to learn more about Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question.