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Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (Mrs. Piggle Wiggle #1)

by Betty MacDonald, Alexandra Boiger (Illustrations)

4.16 of 5 stars 4.16 · rating details · 23,902 ratings · 598 reviews

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in an upside-down house and smells like cookies. She was even married to a pirate once. Most of all, she knows everything about children. She can cure them of any ailment. Patsy hates baths. Hubert never puts anything away. Allen eats v-e-r-y slowly. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a treatment for all of them.

Paperback, 144 pages

Published June 3rd 1994 by HarperCollins (first published 1947)

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May 20, 2012 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wow. I forgot all about these books. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was an eccentric lady that parents turned to when they became frustrated with their children's misbehavior. Her techniques were pretty predictable. Let the child do what they want until their behavior back-fired, then she would tell the parents to do some nasty little trick that sent the kids running to the sanctity of good behavior. For instance, when the children wouldn't wash, she would let them get really dirty, then plant radish seeds...more

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Apr 26, 2010 Chandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids-young-adult, 2010_reads, chapters-with-or-for-izzy

Although I can’t say I am head over heels in love with this book I would call it a very successful chapter book read aloud and I would very highly recommend it as such. It is an odd little book because many of the things I consider to be potential negatives could also be construed as positives.

First, having been published in 1947, the family dynamics presented are extremely old fashioned. Think Leave it to Beaver – mom stays home, dad goes to the office and for the most part leaves all domestic...more Although I can’t say I am head over heels in love with this book I would call it a very successful chapter book read aloud and I would very highly recommend it as such. It is an odd little book because many of the things I consider to be potential negatives could also be construed as positives.

First, having been published in 1947, the family dynamics presented are extremely old fashioned. Think Leave it to Beaver – mom stays home, dad goes to the office and for the most part leaves all domestic matters (including child rearing and discipline) up to the mother. He will dole out a few spankings from time to time, but mostly it is mother’s job to fret over the children’s behavior. But then again there is something undeniably fascinating about this set-up (because it is so very different from my reality) and so, for me, it gave the book a sort of quaint appeal.

Second, after the first few chapters it starts to get a bit repetitive. After the charming and quirky Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is introduced and described in the first chapter; the next seven chapters follow a clear formula – a problem is identified, mother frets, finally calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for advice, executes cure, and child is cured. This repetition and lack of linear storyline could get a little tiresome. But then again many parents are reading this aloud to a child and young children in particular thrive on that kind of predictability. Not only that, children will love hearing about all the naughty children and the resulting ‘cures’ that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle offers up. I think the one that neither I nor my daughter will ever forget is The Radish Cure! And my very favorite was the last – The Fighter-Quarrelers Cure.

Also something that I really appreciated is that there is this running sly commentary about the kind of ‘support’ we sometimes get from fellow moms – you know the kind of advice that is designed to patronize and self aggrandize than to actually do the asker any good. And so thank goodness for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and her ‘cures’! Let’s just let this lay to rest any nonsense that you have to be a parent to know and understand the hearts and minds of children.
(less)

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Nov 17, 2012 Anagha Pashilkar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is a very funny book and it's fun to read. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle lives in an upside down house, has a dog named Wag and catt named Lightfoot, and knows every kid in the neighborhood. I like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle because she is kind, funny, and knows everything about kids there is to know. This book explains in detail so it paints a perfect picture in your mind and the stories that this book tells can actually tach you things like how doing chores is good and can be fun.I give this b...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 30, 2010 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: db-2010

Rather enjoyable book that the family listened to while riding in the car. Essentially, Mrs Piggle-Wiggle knows exactly how to parent all children, even though she's never had any children herself. All the neighborhood parents call her for advice, she gives it to them, and it works wonders. Not too deep on plot, but the vignettes are humerous, both intentionally, and due to the somewhat dated nature of the book. Imagine the trouble Mrs piggle-wiggle had once tv was invented...

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Sep 10, 2008 Janet rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrensnovels, psychic-trauma

Banned books:

Are you there God, its me, Margaret
Huckleberry Finn
Heather has two Mommies

Why are people wasting their time on those well meaning books when Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is still out there on shelves, unchallenged, messing with people's heads?! I read this odd little book when I was about eight and STILL have recurring nightmares about The Radish Cure. I just reread it today, trying to vanquish my fears, and now I'm afraid to go to sleep.

I will not go into details about The Radish Cure except...more

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 25, 2009 Leigh Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a parent, I have tried to steer my children toward some of the books I loved as a child, with indifferent success. I chalked it up to the generation gap, among other things. So I could hardly believe it a few years ago when my kids went mad, I mean bonkers, for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, a children's book character who is like the 1940s version of Willy Wonka. As a result, I have read nearly every episode in the life of Mrs. P.-W., and I must warn anyone tempted to go down the same road that the sto...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Julesmarie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrens

I can remember just absolutely adoring these books as a child. But I'd completely forgotten about them (and then unfortunately mistaken them for the Amelia Bedelia books...) until I found this in a bookstore yesterday.

I remember being so fascinated by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's upside-down house with the slidey floors and the dress-up clothes and the pony and wishing so badly I could be one of the children who got to visit her.

It's curious how different the experience of reading this as an adult was....more

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Apr 15, 2013 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this kids book! Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is your neighborhood busybody, but this one loves kids and they love her. She not only lets them, but encourages them, to dig for treasure in her backyard, make cookies, darn socks, and do other chores that they can learn as "fun" at her house. It's no wonder she knows every child in her small town...

The book is written mainly as entries for advice that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle provided neighborhood moms when they were trying to improve the behavior...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Megan Larson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-and-ya

Recommended for grades 1-4.
I preview-read the first couple of chapters of this for my kids as my before-bed reading, and I laughed aloud so much that I couldn't wait to share it with them the next day. Sure enough, they were taken by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in a way I don't think I've seen before. She's the neighbor every kid wishes for, and would make an ideal grandmother--her home and person are entirely at the children's disposal. But Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is no child's fool, and when it comes time...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Anna Ligtenberg rated it 5 of 5 stars

ISBN 0064401480 - Let's get the crazy parents out of the way first. If you think reading a book in which all the moms are stay-at-home moms will cause your child to have a psychological break with the reality of 2007, please leave this review and do not buy this book. If you think that the reference of a parent to their desire to paddle the behind of a poorly behaved child will scar your innocent child for life, or that the one-time mention of a father calling his overweight son Blimpy is too ha...more ISBN 0064401480 - Let's get the crazy parents out of the way first. If you think reading a book in which all the moms are stay-at-home moms will cause your child to have a psychological break with the reality of 2007, please leave this review and do not buy this book. If you think that the reference of a parent to their desire to paddle the behind of a poorly behaved child will scar your innocent child for life, or that the one-time mention of a father calling his overweight son Blimpy is too harsh to bear, you go too. If you have no sense of humor, there's the door. Now, for the rest of you -

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is something of a combination of Pippi Longstocking - no cares, no worries, weird house, deceased pirate husband (missing seafaring father for Pippi), a home full of fun and good times - and Mary Poppins - not an ailment she can't fix, relates to kids perfectly, parents love her too - with a dash of Opie's Aunt Bea - always with the yummy food and sage advice - thrown in. Kids love her, so when those kids' parents need advice, who better to turn to than the woman who spends more time with their kids than anyone else?

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle takes a phone call at the start of each chapter and helps a mother with her child's problem, offering unique "cures" to such ills as "Won't-Pick-Up-Toys-itis". While the cures are simple psychology, the stories are much more. The problems and the cures are hilarious and even the escalation of some sicknesses are roll-on-the-floor funny.

Not meant to be taken so seriously as some reviewers seem to take it, this is a light-hearted, silly look at some of the most notoriously silly childhood behaviors. From selfishness to fighting with siblings, there's a reflection here of everyone who's ever been a child. And, like Mary O'Toole, who sees her own talking back behavior in Penelope the Parrot and doesn't find it attractive, maybe just seeing how silly their behavior is when someone else indulges will help them overcome it. If not, so what? The book is still a funny, funny read, even SIXTY years after they were written in 1947!

- AnnaLovesBooks(less)

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Apr 01, 2012 Mistiemae1 Downs rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-books

In Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald, readers are introduced to a clever, imaginative, and eccentric character whose love of children allows her unique insight into their behavior. Each chapter beyond the first illustrates Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle offering her expertise and loving cures to distraught parents, usually via some ridiculous and hilarious manner.

The good news is that my children were more entertained by the book than I was. Each chapter follows the same basic formula, with a mother ex...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Jared Burton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-353

MacDonald, Betty, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1947.
Genre - Fiction
This is a book about a rather odd lady who lives in an upside down house. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle started off in the neighborhood lonely without any friends until one little girl who was running away from home because she was tired of doing the dishes was taken in by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. After she told Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle her ordeal, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle showed her how she did the dishes. She told the little gi...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, childhood

I just finished reading this book to my niece (4) and nephew (6). There are so many things I loved about it, I think I'll just list them out here.

1. Everything was so simple - simple enough for me to laugh and enjoy reading, and simple enough that the children could understand what I was reading about. As much as I love reading descriptions aloud to them, it's more fun for THEM to hear dialog and funny cures.

2. The symptoms are VERY real ones. Never wanting to go to bed, fighting all the time, n...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 13, 2010 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: second-childhood, read-aloud-to-t-and-j-too-sort-of

I never encountered Mrs Piggle-Wiggle as a child, but I know that many people who did really adore this series. Coming to it as an adult, I feel like I've missed out on some kind of special magic that it must have, because while I liked it well enough, it's hard for me to see how it could inspire such fond devotion.

I read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to my six-year-old, having just recently resolved to make more of an effort to read aloud chapter books to him (we've been stuck in a loop, reading the same...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 09, 2013 Nik rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 27, 2010 Jane added it

Not sure how I missed this when I was little, since I read just about everything I could find, but I do think that I would have enjoyed it for the charming language and for waiting to find out the ingenious "cure" that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle dishes out in each chapter. As an adult I found the book a bit blatantly moralistic and preachy, despite the tongue-in-cheek tone, and I might, as a child, have felt that the characters were being condescended to. The book doesn't follow particular child charact...more

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Rebecca Stimpson i read and loved the first 3 of these as a kid. (the 4th, mrs. piggle-wiggle's farm, was written about a decade afterwards and the writing lost its sp...more
updated Mar 01, 2010 11:41pm

Jane I think you;re right about (at least some) kids understanding that the attitudes and lifestyles in older books reflect another era. I read and loved m...more
Mar 02, 2010 10:00pm

Rebecca Stimpson i think i understand that...but i probably didn't find the book too condescending because, as a child, i condescended to other kids. (i don't want to...more
Mar 02, 2010 10:50pm

Nov 30, 2009 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Children everywhere

Recommended to Natalie by: NEH Classics list

Shelves: childrens-books, recently-read, family-book-club

This book is truly delightful. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in an upside down house, has buried treasure in her back yard, and understands children like nobody else. She knows how to make mundane jobs like doing the dishes and making the beds an adventure. And she has the perfect solutions for childhood tantrums and idiosyncracies -- common sense ideas taken to the extreme include the Won't-Pick-Up-Toys cure, the Answer-Backer cure, the Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders cure, the Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Take...more

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Aug 01, 2007 Kim Bui rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think I still own a Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. I think they read them to us in grade school and I started reading the rest from the school library. They're such cute stories with pretty good morals that aren't so obtusely hidden. I mean the kids that are reading this are smart enough to figure out that these are stories to teach them.

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Feb 27, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens-chapter

I read this book about 4,657 times when I was a kid. It is JUST as hilarious when I re-read it as an adult. In fact, I appreciated some parts even more, such as the snarky references to other parents' "helpful advice." Also, this book seems SO great for talking about moral issues with kids! Not only is it funny, but Mrs. Piggle Wiggle "cures" bad behavior by either forcing someone to see his sin for what it really is or giving someone exactly what he wants so he can see how it leads to emptiness...more

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Sep 18, 2008 Allie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been reading these funny stories to my daughter who is 3. It's a chapter book so it doesn't have pictures but we read a chapter a day and she likes the story. I can remember MY Mom reading these to me time and time again.. until I could read them myself.

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Feb 15, 2012 Tawny rated it 4 of 5 stars

A friend recommended this book to me and I enjoyed it. I think it is a good book especially for parents to read to their children. It seems as if Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a cure for everything. No matter if it not putting things away, not liking bathes, or kids who don't want to go to bed she is always coming up with creative ideas how to take care of the problem. She is never mean to the children either. I think it also can show that there are different ways to handle the children if need be. (No...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Amory Blaine added it

Shelves: 2012, short-stories, homeschool

I loved this book when I was a kid! Mrs Piggle-Wiggle herself is Mary Poppins meets Pippi Longstocking. She lives in an upside-down house overrun with pets, married a pirate, and leads neighborhood children on fantastic adventures. Her real skill, however comes in dealing with overwrought parents, who turn to her to find cures for common childhood "ailments" like selfishness and answering back. The parents are the same characters (distant and wise-cracking father; baffled and concerned mother) i...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Megen LaVine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't often write about the children's books we read, but this one was notable! Notable because while I found it to be a bit tiresome- my children loved it!!! I started reading it to one and they all became enthralled! It became our "family" reading story, which is tough to find for a 4,6 and 8 year old and I look forward to reading more of her books with them. They remembered details of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle which cracked them up and reference her cures and silliness all the time. Whereas there...more

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Feb 03, 2009 alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, reading-with-leon

I'm happy to say that Mrs. Piggle Wiggle has stood the test of time quite well - I loved these as a kid, and Leon is loving them now, 25 years later. Aside from a few moments where the author describes motivations in a way that would be considered dated today (like when a mother is described as resorting to crying on the phone to the father, because she's frustrated but also because she knows that will get his attention), the stories are still fun and funny, and the behavioral problems are still...more

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Oct 20, 2011 Erika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids

The girls loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. There are parts of the book that are a little dated, but that was fine as the problems the children (and their parents!) were having seem to be timeless: Not wanting to go to bed or take a bath or pick up toys, selfishness, bickering, and picky eating. There were many times when we were reading the book and I was describing the exasperated parent and the girls said, "Mommy she sounds just like you!" Ah! After we had finished the book, I happened to ask my seve...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I remember when I was a little girl, this was my favorite series ever. I just remembered I read it like two seconds ago, so I thought I would add it. Even if you read the premise on this site, it sounds adorable, and it makes me want to read it again. I remember when I finished it even. I was in church, and I was reading. HAHAH. Even that is hilarious. I guess I just couldn't put it down. And I remember after I finished, I could barely concentrate on anything else because I loved it so much and...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Poiema rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-books

I scouted this book out because I had such pleasant memories of a teacher reading it to me back-in-the-day, around 1963. Fine literature it is not, but Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle understands children and she made just as deep an impression on my children as she did on me. My daughter scouted out all of the books in this series and laughed over them, shared them with her little sister, and re-read them. They are just clean fun, honing in on bad habits that all children are prone to have and calling Mrs....more

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Jan 24, 2011 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, k-6, fantasy

I remember adoring the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books when I was little, except for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm because it didn't have any magical cures in it. I was surprised to find that this first book in the series didn't include them either. I didn't love it as much as I think I will love re-reading the next couple of books, but I still think the little stories are really fun. I love the old-fashioned feeling of these books. However, the radish cure story is the grossest thing ever and I had to cri...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Dana rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a cute book written in an era before my time. We enjoyed watching our 3 year old as we read all the interesting words. She also thought it was funny that all the grown-ups didn't know what to do with their misbehaving children, and they would call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for advice. She would give the parents very practical and creative solutions to the child's bad choices. We also didn't expect to see positive changes in our daughter after each chapter. It was a fun read, however, it was ha...more

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May 03, 2010 Angela Wade rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childhood

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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About Betty MacDonald

The first book written by Betty MacDonald, The Egg and I , rocketed to the top of the national bestseller list in 1945. Translations followed in more than 30 languages, along with a series of popular movies. In the wake of World War II, the hilarious accounts of MacDonald's adventures as a backwoods farmer's wife in Chimacum Valley were a breath of fresh air for readers around the world. On the ne...more The first book written by Betty MacDonald, The Egg and I , rocketed to the top of the national bestseller list in 1945. Translations followed in more than 30 languages, along with a series of popular movies. In the wake of World War II, the hilarious accounts of MacDonald's adventures as a backwoods farmer's wife in Chimacum Valley were a breath of fresh air for readers around the world. On the negative side, her book spawned a perception of Washington as a land of eccentric country bumpkins like Ma and Pa Kettle.

Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard, called Betsy in childhood and later known world-wide as Betty MacDonald, was born in Boulder, Colorado, to Darsie and Elsie/Sydney Bard on March 26, 1908. Her father, a mining engineer, moved the family frequently before settling in Seattle. Betty attended the St. Nicholas School on Capitol Hill, then Lincoln High School. In 1924 she graduated from Roosevelt High School.

On July 9, 1927, Betty Bard married Robert E. Heskett and moved with him to the farm in the tiny community of Center in the Chimacum Valley near Port Townsend that lacked both plumbing and electricity. Betty later regaled family and friends with stories of her struggles during this time, eventually transforming them into the book that would make her famous.

After four years, Betty left Robert Hesket, taking their two daughters, Anne and Joan, with her. She returned to the family home in Seattle and worked at various jobs, keeping her sense of humor and her journal even when tuberculosis forced her to spend a year at Firland Sanatorium in what is now the city of Shoreline.

On April 29, 1942, she married Donald C. MacDonald (1910-1975) and moved with him and her daughters to a beach home on Vashon Island. Built as a summer home, it was cold and damp and in need of improvements. Anne and Joan enrolled in school while Don and Betty commuted to Seattle for work every day. Betty later described her daily scramble from home to the ferry dock in [book:Onions In The Stew|:

"It was always seven o'clock and my ferry left at seven-twenty and I should have left at six-fifty and now I would have to run the last quarter of a mile. I wore loafers and woolen socks over my silk stockings, carried my office shoes along with my lunch, purse, current book and grocery list in a large green felt bag. The county trail connecting our beach with the rest of the world begins at a cluster of mailboxes down by the dock, meanders along the steep southwest face of the island about fifty feet above the shore, and ends at our house ... if it was dark when I left the house (and it usually was) I ... ran the rest of the way to the ferry ... This boisterous early morning activity also started my blood circulating, churning, really, and by the time I got to the office I was not only bileless, I was boiling hot" (p. 57).

Their fortune changed with a call from MacDonald's sister, Mary Bard Jensen (1904-1970). At a cocktail party, Mary ran into a friend who was a publishing company scout and told him that Betty was writing a book (which she was not). Betty whipped up the proposal for The Egg and I to save her sister embarrassment. The scout requested a full manuscript, which was rejected by one publishing house. With the assistance of the New York literary agency Brandt & Brandt, the book was serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and then published by J.B. Lippincott. She dedicated the book "To my sister Mary, who has always believed that I can do anything she puts her mind to."(less)

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