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! 

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.