Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Yay Pie! had a post the other day about favorite childhood books. After reading her post I began thinking of some of my old favorites and remembered "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle". Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is an unusual neighborhood character that always has an cure for typical childhood misbehaviors. Her cures are not as simple as a spanking or sending the child to a "time out chair" - they are much more time consuming...her philosophy being more of a reverse-psychology method of discipline.

The "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" books were written by Betty MacDonald (also the author of 'The Egg and I').

I had never read a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book to my kids yet - but decided today was the day. They LOVED it! What's not to like about a story that includes a boy stuck in his room b/c his toys are all over the place and he has to have his food sent up to him by a garden rake, outside his bedroom window?

My favorite story as a child was the one about the little girl who always "misheard" things...she calls a friend's house to see if she can come out and play...the friend's mother answers the phone and says she can't come out b/c she was riding on her coaster and fell and got hurt. Mishearing girl takes that to be "she fell into the toaster and got burnt up". I remember thinking that part was so hilarious! I even remember where I was sitting when I read it...out on my parent's front steps...which means I was at least 8 yrs old and could have been as old as 12 yrs old.

Just hope the kids don't get any ideas from these books...

3 comments:

TheSaxonHus said...

I must admit I have never heard of "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" despite the number of books we have and have borrowed and the number of children we have raised. I'll have to check them out for some of the grandkids!

When I first saw your post, I thought you were writing about the "Piggly Wiggly" grocery chain!!!

ames said...

I'm so happy that your kids loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! Then again, they do seem to have impeccable taste ;)

CanadianGrandma said...

This is the first time that I have heard about this book. Did you get it from the library?