Review #22: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

Title: Macdonald, Betty. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. HarperTrophy. 1985. 118 pages. Pb. $3.89. ISBN 978-0-06-440148-7
Genre: Fiction
Reading Level/Interest Level: 4.5/ Grades 3-6
Awards: None
Series:

·         Book 1: Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

·         Book 2: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

·         Book3: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm

·         Book 4: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic

·         Book 5: Happy Birthday Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Similar Titles: Lady Lollipop by Dick King-Smith, Nurse Matilda: The Collected Tales by Christianna Brand (Major Motion Picture Nanny McPhee based on Nurse Matilda), Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a delightfully eccentric widow who lives in an upside down house. Kids love her, initially thinking that they get away with anything they wish and experience the freedom that no other adult will give. Little do the know that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a cure  for every ill, and that many of their parents will enlist her box of tricks to cure their bad behaviors.

From back-talking, to refusing to bathe or sleep, interrupting, not washing the dishes or putting away your toys, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle will give you a dose of your own medicine, though you may not see her, and always as the consequence of your own actions. Don’t want to take a bath? Well you might find that one day, you’ve become the best human radish garden ever! Don’t want to pick up your toys? You just might find that one day you can’t get out of your room to eat dinner.

Much like a more eccentric and seemingly disorganized Mary Poppins, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle teaches lessons in an indirect manner, often to oblivious and enabling parents and naughty children with hilarious results, though many of us who read these books during our formative years might also tell you the fear we felt while reading, because we knew that we were guilty of the same offenses and were afraid we might suffer the same fate. If ever there were an argument for behavior modification, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle had it, and many stories have been built from her lessons over the last 6 decades. In a twist on stories that give the wicked adults a what-for, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle turns the tables to say, we're not as dumb as you think we are, kid. *wink*