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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
I remember loving the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books when I was in elementary school. I had hoped they would still be entertaining for Violet to listen to me read to her now, 30 years after I read them (and 70 years after they were written), and they were (Violet was delighted with the cures and kept asking for more).
But what I did not expect was to be chuckling myself at the sly humor that Betty MacDonald snuck in that is still so funny as a mom today (the conversations with the other mothers and the increasingly absurd names - brilliant!). Sure, there are some gender role stereotypes of the era, and some references to “Indians” and weight that I omitted/rephrased, but this book is still a gem.
But what I did not expect was to be chuckling myself at the sly humor that Betty MacDonald snuck in that is still so funny as a mom today (the conversations with the other mothers and the increasingly absurd names - brilliant!). Sure, there are some gender role stereotypes of the era, and some references to “Indians” and weight that I omitted/rephrased, but this book is still a gem.
Parents in one city turn to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for ludicrous child rearing tips and Saw style punishments to correct various behaviors. More a series of macabre short stories than a novel, really.
These books don't age as well as I thought they would. The family and parenting dynamics are very, very dated. The stories are still somewhat funny, though, and we have enjoyed reading them.
I read this book out loud to my girls at bedtime last summer. They couldn't wait until bedtime and would laugh the whole way through the stories. A very quick read and so much fun. A definite for all moms to read to their children1
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in an upside-down house, with the aroma of freshly baked cookies surrounding her home. All her friends are the children in her neighborhood and, since her husband was a pirate who buried treasure in her backyard, she allows her friends to dig for the treasure that is surely there. But Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle also becomes popular with the neighborhood parents: she seems to have a cure for every case of bad manners!
When I was in first grade, I was a precocious reader. I was inhaling books left and right, and my local librarian had her hands full trying to keep me challenged and entertained. I vividly recall her handing me my first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book, racing home and being 100% enthralled with the stories. The Radish Cure was especially amusing to me.
I tend to recommend the book to children as well – and I thought I should probably re-read it so that I would have the story fresh in my mind and not tainted by, uh-hum, years.
My re-read had me still utterly enchanted with the upside-down house (oh how I long to take a stroll through its halls!) and the pirate treasure (I never found treasure in mybackyard!) but, of course, there were some concerns that never occurred to me as a child. First of all, there are several mentions of spanking the children – though it should be noted that the spanking didn’t work, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cure does. I don’t recall even focusing on this bit as a youth but it bothered me to see this much-debated form of punishment mentioned so casually. I also was bothered by the Selfishness Cure as its success really relied on teasing and laughing and, I felt, bordered on bullying. And, of course, this was written in the late 1940s, and the roles of men and women in the house show. My goodness, were men really that uninvolved in their children’s upbringing?!
Despite my grown-up hesitations, I will still recommend this book. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is just too much fun to not populate the lives of children forever!
Note: I recently received an advance reader’s copy of Missy Piggle-Wiggle: apparently Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s niece is taking over with an updated take on the stories. I look forward to reading that and I hope it holds up to the Piggle-Wiggle name.
When I was in first grade, I was a precocious reader. I was inhaling books left and right, and my local librarian had her hands full trying to keep me challenged and entertained. I vividly recall her handing me my first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book, racing home and being 100% enthralled with the stories. The Radish Cure was especially amusing to me.
I tend to recommend the book to children as well – and I thought I should probably re-read it so that I would have the story fresh in my mind and not tainted by, uh-hum, years.
My re-read had me still utterly enchanted with the upside-down house (oh how I long to take a stroll through its halls!) and the pirate treasure (I never found treasure in mybackyard!) but, of course, there were some concerns that never occurred to me as a child. First of all, there are several mentions of spanking the children – though it should be noted that the spanking didn’t work, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cure does. I don’t recall even focusing on this bit as a youth but it bothered me to see this much-debated form of punishment mentioned so casually. I also was bothered by the Selfishness Cure as its success really relied on teasing and laughing and, I felt, bordered on bullying. And, of course, this was written in the late 1940s, and the roles of men and women in the house show. My goodness, were men really that uninvolved in their children’s upbringing?!
Despite my grown-up hesitations, I will still recommend this book. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is just too much fun to not populate the lives of children forever!
Note: I recently received an advance reader’s copy of Missy Piggle-Wiggle: apparently Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s niece is taking over with an updated take on the stories. I look forward to reading that and I hope it holds up to the Piggle-Wiggle name.
I haven't read this since I was a kid, but my kids really enjoyed listening to it! It was a sweet story and my older boy thought it was hilarious at parts.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle don't play. She will starve your nonsense ass if you don't eat the the food on your tiny ass plate.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Delightful! Fun to go back in time and remember my love of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.