Missy Piggle-Wiggle

Like many others throughout the decades, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series was something I grew up on. The first book was published in 1947, before my mother was even born, and the next three followed between 1949 and 1957. In 2007, I remember seeing Happy Birthday. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle on the shelf in Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn and being thrilled. That book was written by the author's daughter, based on notes her mother left. 

In 2016, Ann M. Martin (Babysitters Club, Main Street, lots of other things) joined forces with the original author's great-granddaughter to create Missy Piggle-Wiggle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's niece. 

There are some differences from the original series. Mr. Piggle-Wiggle, who was always a pirate but was deceased in the first books, is now alive and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle goes off in search of him. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lived in an upside down house, which she sold in the third book to move to a farm, and then ended up back in the house in the fourth book with no further mention of the farm. Now the farm and upside down house have been combined, though the farm really plays no role in any of the three modern books. 

Missy Piggle-Wiggle (yeah, kinda low-hanging name fruit) is the niece of Mrs. and she comes from a magical school that I'd be interested in reading more about. She takes on Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle role as a friend to children who also assists with magical cures when need be. 

The Whatever Cure introduces Missy and the animals Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle left in her care, then jumps right into chapters devoted to different children receiving different cures. The flavor of the original books remains, though with a modern twist. There's also the amusement of the names. The original series had some very interesting names, although a lot of them were also perfectly normal. I think there's more of a skew towards unusual names in the new series, though a handful of the kids have relatively normal names. My favorites from the original are Paraphernalia Grotto and Pergola Wingsproggle, while the new ones I like best are Honoriah and Petulance Freeforall, Edwina Nevermore, Almandine Clavicle and Roseate Spoonbill. Then there's a bit of romance added to it with Missy's growing relationship with bookseller Harold Spectacle. 

This is the strongest book of the three. 

Won't Walk the Dog is the second in the series and came out in 2017. This one opens with a storm that destroys portions of the upside down house, causing Missy to worry about finding a source of money. 

The strongest cures are Won't Walk the Dog and Woe Is Me. 

The book ends with Missy finally locating the silver key Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle told her to find. Turns out it's a huge solid gold key painted silver. So Missy's money worries are over. 

The third and possibly final book came out in 2018, but I only just finished reading it a couple days ago. 

This is by far the weakest with a lot of the cures having very similar styles. Three of them involve making the people around the child behave in the same way as the child so they're forced to see what a problem they've been. This is fine and amusing, but also very repetitive when they're three chapters in the same book and neither of the other two books really had any cures like this. Won't Walk the Dog sort of was, but it was way more entertaining when it was an anthropomorphized dog, so it's a bit different. A fourth chapter has a multi-stage cure that has a final stage where other people are suddenly given the power the child was given, so that's another similar instance. Sticky Fingers is the best cure by far (and the kid has two moms). 

The main story of this one, not involving the cures, is that the upside down house is stricken with the Winter Effluvia, which sometimes is a basic illness and other times causes interesting problems. Lightfoot the cat floats through the air, while Penelope the parrot speaks in commercials. Missy quarantines the house so the kids can't come in. 

Another thing I didn't care for with this book was how cowardly Harold is. He's very quick to basically flee once Missy realizes it's the Effluvia. They have a sweet moment at the end, but it's different than the Harold that's been more helpful in the first two books. 

Despite nitpicking, I really did enjoy all three of these and I wish there was another one coming! 

More new BSC covers!

Gah, Mary Anne continues to be the cutest damn thing.

I love her.

Logan looks like Cam Geary.

Awwwwww, Louie.

And Astrid.

SHANNON. Not the best outfit ever for Shannon. I think they should have used the original. But still. Shannon.

I'm guessing the blonde is Amanda, but who in the hell is the other girl? She's not a Kilbourne. Tiffany was blonde like Shannon and Maria is too young to be that tall. And also had auburn hair. It's also not Amanda, who's also too young. I can't remember Shannon's actual friends from her school, so maybe it's one of them.

The BSC is back!

As you may have heard, there's going to be a Baby-Sitters Club show on Netflix. Well, apparently in celebration, the series is being re-released for the umpteenth time.

I have to say though, I loooooooooooooove these new covers!

The first 6 books are slated to come out on May 5th, followed by one new volume near the beginning of every following month. So far, Amazon has listings for books 1-15.

I don't usually cave on rereleases, but these covers are so damn cute that I just pre-ordered every listing available. They'll be nice to have out on my shelves, as opposed to my childhood collection, which isn't in the best shape, having been stored in my off-site storage area in Florida during the hurricane.

I don't hold out any hope that they'll reprint all the books, but I'll take what they give me.

So let's take a look at the nine covers we have images for.

Kristy's Great Idea is looking good. Each character is clearly identifiable. Kristy is kneeling on the bed in a slightly more fashionable sporty outfit than what she wears in the books. Mary Anne is a little darling. She looks perfectly in character. Stacey in the lower left is a bit disappointing. She's not nearly as fashionable and sophisticated as she should be. Layered tees? Boring. And those look suspiciously like Mom jeans. Claudia looks decent, but not as out there as she should. I feel like the artist took inspiration from the graphic novels where she's also a bit unusual but not nearly as much as she should be. Claudia's bedroom is on the blah side, but I think a cover that showed all four girls plus how I imagine Claud's room to really look would be way too busy.

Well, Claudia is certainly very pretty, but she's still not dressed like herself.

Okay, now Claudia looks more like herself. In a non-80s fashion.

Mary Anne continues to be the cutest.

That is definitely a very Kristy outfit and she's tiny. Heh.

I think Stacey looks a little better here. Her face and hair are great. But I still can't see her wearing that. Do they not know what sophisticated is?

Another adorable Mary Anne.

Jenny is definitely underdressed though!

Dawn and the Barretts. Looks spot on to me!

No one ever quite gets Kristy's dress right. It's right there on the original cover, but no.

Is that supposed to be Karen? She should be in a similar dress.

And if that's David Michael, then Karen is too short.

Ah, well.

Janine is perfect.

Claud's sweater looks...familiar. Yep, it's almost the same one she wore on the original cover! Yay.

Hey, Stacey looks good here!

Scott could look a bit older though.

This needs an angry sunburned Mary Anne in the background.

And the last one we have so far: Dawn.

She has almost the same outfit as her original cover, too! Nice. They basically just shrunk the oversized shirts. Heh.

Jeff looks maybe a little too small. He's not that much younger than her. I mean, he is, but he's not five or six.

Definitely looking forward to all of these!

BSC Graphic Novels: Boy-Crazy Stacey

The seventh offering in the BSC graphic novel series takes on the original series' eighth book, leaving #2 Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls as the only one not covered. It's Mary Anne's turn next, so I'm wondering if we might meet Logan soon!

Anyway, Boy-Crazy Stacey follows Mary Anne and Stacey on the Pikes' annual trip to the small beach town of Sea City, New Jersey. It's your typical beach town with a boardwalk, etc. but I always love stuff like that, so those elements were great.

The main plot is Stacey ignoring her charges to flirt with Scott, a lifeguard that she thinks likes her back. I haven't read the original book in forever, but I just used Google to fact check and Scott was 18 in the book. Here they've lowered his age to 15, which is a more reasonable age for a crush, and he's way less of a dick. No sending Stacey on random errands. They just talk.

This one isn't anywhere near as hilarious as Kristy's Big Day or as emotional as Dawn and the Impossible Three. It's a bit of fluff, but hey, at least we get out of Stoneybrook for a while. Not that we've seen much of it yet...

My only real gripe is that Mallory is now a BSC member. They moved those events up in the graphic novels. But while she isn't here as an official babysitter, she could still be in more scenes with the older girls, as they're supposed to be actual friends now. They've changed the events around a bit, so why not give Mal some more screentime? She needs her own volume, too. And we need Jessi! I want Jessi before the graphic novel series ends, which I hope it doesn't anytime soon.

BSC Graphic Novels: Kristy's Big Day

I don't think I've done reviews of any of the BSC graphic novels, but trust me, they're great. I recently got the first four in color (I had bought the original black and whites) not long after the fifth one came out. Well, now the sixth one is here!

I grew up on the BSC. I'm a huge fan. Big-time nostalgia. I loved the first four graphic novels and I was thrilled when they decided to continue the series.

Now the comics have hopped around a bit. The first one matched the first BSC book, but then they skipped book #2 and book #3 became the second graphic novel. Book #4 was the third and then it jumped all the way to book #7 for the fourth. They wanted one with Claudia as the lead and they decided not to make it book #2. When it came time for graphic novel #5, they went back to book #5, while also adding Mallory to the cast, borrowing events from book #14, which is set after Stacey moves back to New York City. So now we've come to graphic novel #6 and it matches up with book #6, except they added Mallory into the cast, which is fine with me. Book #6 happens to be one of my favorites of the early BSC books, so I was really excited for this.

I was surprised at how many times I burst out laughing while reading this. They really went all out with the funny situations and expressions on the characters. So instead of me doing a normal review, I'm going to share the funniest parts of the book!

Forgive my photos. I was too lazy to scan these, so I just used my camera. And then was too lazy to crop them better.

Here's Kristy's mom freaking out when she realizes they have to plan a wedding and plan a move in very minimal time.

In this scene, Kristy has just told the BSC about her idea: the six of them watching the 14 kids that will be around during the wedding planning. It sounds like a load of work, but the bonus is that they're being paid double their usual rate from 9-5 for multiple days.

This is Claudia's reaction to that amount of money.

And here she is trying the tactic on Mary Anne.

Mallory is stinkin' adorable. I love her. And their faces in the last panel while they're trying to get Mary Anne on board with this plan.

EVERY BIT OF THIS IS GOLD.

And it continues.

Kristy's pep talk to herself had me dying.

And this. OMG. Her face. That is kind of a duh, Watson.

Exhausted after Day One. I love how Stacey's got her likely sweaty bare feet all over Claudia. Kristy's just faceplanted.

Dawn is 100% over Karen.

Kristy threatening the boys to behave during the barbershop scene.

And the not often seen rage of Mary Anne on the previous page.

I just love all this. I laughed so many times! Get these. Read them all. Join me in laughing. And then cross your fingers that we get to go to Sea City soon!

MRS. PIGGLE-WIGGLE

Oh, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. My younger childhood had three major book series loves: Ramona, Berenstain Bears and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. I still get massive enjoyment out of all of these, although Ramona will forever be my fave.

The first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book was written in 1947, one year before my mom was born! Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic followed in 1949, and then Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm in 1954 and Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in 1957. These would be all the books we'd get from the original author, Betty MacDonald, who died in 1958.

I remember absolutely loving these and their hilarious illustrations and wonderfully-named characters. The basic premise is that the children in the neighborhood have some rather obnoxious failings and desperate parents soon learn to call up Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for the cures. The kids all love her and hang out at her house (which is upside down) all the time.

The first book has cures that involve simple tricks and no magic whatsoever, but the second has the cures turning more magical. The third book has Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle moved to a farm at the edge of town, so the kids have to come stay with her to be cured. This is easily my least favorite of the lot and I think even the author herself realized her misstep, because the fourth book has Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle right back in town with no mention of the farm at all.

In 2007, I remember being in the Barnes & Noble on the next block over from my first NYU dorm in Brooklyn. I walked past the new releases and there was Happy Birthday, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle! I was shocked and bought it right away. The book was written by the author's daughter, working from one finished story and lots of notes left by her mother. The book makes a nice ending for the main Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series.

I can't remember how I stumbled across it, but just a few days ago, I learned about Missy Piggle-Wiggle. The original author's great-granddaughter teamed up with Ann M. Martin, most famous as the author of the Babysitters Club, and they created a new series. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has left the upside-down house and the farm, now conveniently moved to right by the house, in the care of her great-niece. In the original series, Mr. Piggle-Wiggle was clearly deceased, but in the new series, they've got Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle on a search for him. He's a pirate, so he could be anywhere, you know. Missy grew up learning magic and the cures in this book are the most magical ones yet. She also has an invisible bag and the house has become sentient (and has a bit of a vendetta against Missy). This book is also the first to make the fact that they're being cured of something more obvious to the children and even to the town itself. There was a much more subtle approach before with the cures mostly taking place at home, but now we've got them happening during school hours and everything. I didn't mind this approach, but it's a very different feel than the original stories. The town scenes also smack of Martin, because they feel pulled right from her Main Street series. There's something about Ann M Martin describing small towns, I guess!

Anyway, the first Missy Piggle-Wiggle book came out last September and the second, shown in the third picture, is coming this September.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a great series for all ages. Definitely loads of fun and even though the earlier stories are decidedly dated, they won't fail to amuse.