Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Title: Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Author: Betty MacDonald

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: It started off as a beautiful morning. Mrs. Carmody, Meg, said to her dog that spring was her favorite time of the year. She was inside and plugged in the toaster, took out the strawberry jam and yelled up to her husband, Jordan, that breakfast was ready. She also made sure that her son, Phillip, who was ten years old, was awake. Constance, who was eleven and three quarters, was Phillip’s sister, who told on him all of the time. When Jordan came downstairs, he stepped in water, because Mrs. Carmody spilled the dog’s water by accident. Jordan seemed very upset and bothered and when his wife asked if he got wet, he said “Nothing matters anymore.” She asked if he was sick and he said he wasn’t physically sick, but he was “sick at heart.” Connie and Mrs. Carmody told Meg that Phillip was ruining their lives. Connie said she was embarrassed to have any of her friends over, and that he was a disgrace to their father the night before. Jordan had a client over, Bob Waltham, and Phillip did things that were not called for, and Jordan was afraid he could have lost a client over it. Just then, Phillip came down the stairs to eat his cereal and poured too much sugar on it. Both parents got frustrated. As everyone left for school and work, Meg saw a white piece of paper underneath Phillips chair. It was a note from Phillip’s teacher, Edith Perriwinkle. Mrs. Perriwinkle suggested that Meg called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who was some sort of “doctor” for children. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle told Meg to send Phillip down to her office after school, and she would give him something called show off powder. This would make Phillip invisible to everyone when he’s showing off, but when he’s acting normal, everyone would be able to see him again. Phillip came home, trying to show off, and he dropped the glass with the powder in it. Mrs. Carmody got it and sprinkled it on him when he came in the house. Mr. Carmody’s car pulled in the driveway and Phillip tried to show off. He didn’t answer and nobody else did either. Phillip wondered why, but once he came back into the house, his parents said they didn’t see him doing any tricks and that dinner would be ready in five minutes. At dinner, Phillip disappeared three times. At school, Phillip disappeared a few times as well. On the way home, one of his friends tried showing off, and Phillip caught it. He was in disbelief that he was showing off so much!

Mrs. Foxglove was baking brownies that all four of her children loved. She heard what sounded like a siren coming closer and closer. He was her oldest son, Cornell, who was eleven years old. Harvard was her nine year old son, who wanted brownies because he got a hundred in spelling. Emmie was six and she wanted brownies because she lost another tooth. Lastly, Melody came in crying. She was eight years old and she fell and got hurt. Melody was a cry baby, and everyone knew it. Mrs. Foxglove didn’t know what to do so she called Mr. Pillsbury. He came over to try and help her. Dr. Pillsbury said that if he couldn’t find anything wrong with Melody, he suggests that she calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Foxglove sent the boys over to get Melody some medicine. Apparently, it tasted like vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce on top. At dinner that night, Mr. and Mrs. Foxglove watched as Melody’s tears quickly vanished. Suddenly, she began crying and she was soaking wet with her tears. They told her to stop, shut her mouth and just smile. She did and the tears immediately stopped. The next morning, Melody woke up very happy and when she got to school, Mrs. Rexall, the principal said to Old Joe, the janitor, that she was so happy that Melody had finally cheered up. The next day, the kids had a birthday party they were invited too. At lunchtime, someone jokingly took Melody’s gingerbread. She had been having a good day, but without even thinking about what happened the night before, the tears started pouring out. She ran out of the lunch room and by the court and was bawling again. Finally, one of her friends stopped her from crying and brought her a kitten-her own kitten. She stopped crying and went into Mrs. Rexall’s office until her clothes dried. Melody said she was never going to cry again. At the birthday party, something happened and the Ferris wheel stopped. Two girls began to cry but Melody said “Crying never helped anything.”

Nicholas Semicolon is ten years old, and for his age, he was a very strong and large boy. His parents were very proud of him, except for one thing. Nicholas was a bully. Mr. and Mrs. Semicolon didn’t know Nicholas was a bully at first. Mr. Semicolon and Nicholas almost wore the same size shoes because of how quickly Nicholas had been growing. Mr. Semicolon had gotten a pair of shoes while he was in Chicago, but they didn’t fit him so he gave them to Nicholas, who wanted to wear them to school the next day. After breakfast, Nicholas went to school and Mr. Semicolon went into his office. The phone rang and it was Roscoe Eager’s mother, calling to tell Carlotta Semicolon that if she doesn’t do something about “that big bully”, she was going to call the sheriff. Apparently on the way to school, Nicholas kicked Roscoe in his shins with his new shoes. Mrs. Semicolon called Mr. Semicolon and she was very upset. First, Mr. Semicolon was going to go to the school and deal with Nicholas himself, but then he had an idea to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle suggested something called Bully baths. They are baths at night with a little powder sprinkled into them. Then she said they might not work, so she suggested Leadership pills. They are little green pills that taste like peppermint. When Nicholas was coming home from school, Mrs. Semicolon looked out the window just in time. She saw Nicholas raise his geography book to a little girls head and hit her with it. She grabbed him and brought him inside. They went to the grocery store and stopped at Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house on the way back. When they got there, Nicholas made it a point to bully some of the other kids who were playing in Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s yard. Before she could unpack the groceries, Mrs. Semicolon gave Nicholas one of the Leadership pills and sent him up to his room. It was then that she remembered that she didn’t bring anything over to Roscoe that she had promised, so she called to see if he was still awake. He was so she put on her coat, but before she could, Nicholas came down and said “Let me take the things over, Mother.” Nicholas brought the things over and apologized to Roscoe. His mother made them cocoa and his father gave him a lecture. They played some darts and then Nicholas came home to study geography and went to sleep. The next morning, Nicholas had another leadership pill and he rode Roscoe on his handlebars to school, carefully. He told his mom that the boots were too heavy for school and he wanted a new pair. Nicholas invited one of his friends over after school that day. His name was Jimmy Gopher, who was just as big and strong as Nicholas was. Nicholas now had his own place in the backyard that his parents had fixed up for him. Suddenly, Jimmy stuck his foot out and tripped a little girl. When his mother looked outside, ready with anger, she realized that Nicholas was helping her up and wiping away her tears. Nicholas told Jimmy that if he wanted to be in the club, he couldn’t do that anymore. Before they knew it, Priscilla, the girl who Jimmy tripped, and Roscoe were all part of the club. They called it “The Neighborhood Children’s Club” and it was to fix bicycles and things like that. The day they made a sign for their club, they invited Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle over for tea.

On a Friday afternoon, Miss Weathervane was reading to her fourth-grade class. She was reading a book called “The Man Who Bought a Dream” and as she was reading, she heard noises coming from the corner of the classroom. She stopped reading and called out Evelyn Rover and Mary Crackle because they were whispering. The girls were too busy whispering and didn’t hear her. They had been whispering about Evelyn’s birthday party. They were talking about how she didn’t invite Cornelia Whitehouse because she was basically poor. Finally, Miss Weathervane told them both to move to the front of the classroom. Miss Weathervane told the girls that if they couldn’t tell the whole class what they were talking about, which they couldn’t, then they needed to talk about it after school and not while they were reading. After the girls handed in their reports, Miss Weathervane pulled them aside and asked how they would feel if they didn’t have pretty clothes or a father, like Cornelia. The girls walked home from school and went to Mary’s house. They lived right next door to each other. Suddenly, Mrs. Crackle saw a little figure by the gate. It was Cornelia. She invited her inside, and instantly, the girls had attitude because they didn’t like her and you could certainly tell. They started whispering, but Mrs. Crackle put an end to that immediately. Mrs. Crackle sent Evelyn home and Mary up to her room and sat down with Cornelia for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Evelyn came back to the door to apologize and her mother made her invite Cornelia to her birthday party. Cornelia was so happy. Before taking her home, Mary’s two little brothers, Robby and Billy, came running into the house with a bird and a nest. Mary was trying very hard to be nice to Cornelia and it was working, but Evelyn was not being nice at all. She couldn’t help but gossip about every little thing that Cornelia did that she didn’t like. Mr. Crackle suggested that they call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, but they couldn’t at the moment because the boys were running all over the place. When they finally called, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle suggested Whisper sticks, which were magic candy sticks. Mrs. Crackle gave both of the girls a whisper stick, after hearing what they were saying to Cornelia, yet again. These sticks made the girls think they were whispering when they really weren’t, so Cornelia couldn’t hear what they were saying to her anyways. When they were outside, the most popular boy at school, Corinthian Bop, came riding around the corner on his bike. Mary said hello but it seemed as if it was a faint whisper to Corry as well. Mary got frustrated. She wrote a note to her mother, saying that she thought she was sick because of the whispering issues. Her mother explained to her that she had been whispering so much that her vocal cords decided to stop working. Mary worried about the Hush Hush Club, so her mother said that maybe it was time they break it off. Mary’s mother told Mary that she should stop eating the candy sticks because maybe they had an impact on her vocal cords.

Mrs. Quadrangle called Harbin down for breakfast, and soon, she got impatient because he wasn’t coming down. The rest of the kids were finished and his father was reading to leave for the office. His dog, Mr. Pierce, came into his room and he was playing with him. Finally, Harbin’s mother went upstairs, washed Harbin’s face and got him dressed. She was not happy with him at all. His two sisters, Janey and Sylvia threatened to tell their friends at school that Harbin couldn’t dress himself. Harbin was not happy. His little baby brother, whom they called “Old-Timer” spilled cereal and milk all over himself. Mrs. Quadrangle sent Harbin upstairs to get a wash rag. Harbin went upstairs, and his mother continuously told him to hurry up and he said he was hurrying. When his parents went to see if he was all right, Harbin was lying on the stairs so they thought he had fallen and broken something. Harbin told his parents that he was fine and he was just trying to go up the stairs like the sailors. Harbin was going so slowly that his father missed his train and had to take the 9:15 one. The kids had gotten to school after the first bell had rung, so the girls were panicky and ran into school, but not Harbin. He took his time getting all of his things together. Mrs. Quadrangle thought she should call Dr. Watkins because she thought that Harbin might have had thyroid problems, so she did, but the doctor was out. She went home and set off to make an applesauce cake, because Harbin loved that. Mr. Quadrangle was going to pick up cod-liver oil because it apparently fixed everything and made you strong. It was time for the first child to come home from school. Sylvia and her best friend, Annabell came inside, giggling. They took a snack and spent the rest of the afternoon in Sylvia’s room. Next, Janey came home with her two best friends, Mona and Kathy. As mother looked out the window, she saw Harbin, moving slower than ever. She was worried, so she went and offered to carry Harbin to the house. He refused, and he was confused because he said he was feeling fine. She told him that she made applesauce cake, and he started to run home. He just wanted two pieces and to be left alone! When Harbin got home, he ate the feast that was prepared for him by his mother. He began to feel sick, and the room starting spinning so he went outside. Mrs. Quadrangle followed him and she saw that he wasn’t feeling well. She sent him upstairs and she said she was going to see if Dr. Watkins could stop by. Dr. Watkins wrote a prescription for them and it said to call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mr. Quadrangle called her. He came back home carrying a small bottle and a sprayer. The spray was to be put on Harbin’s clothes for the next day, so that’s what they did. The next morning, Harbin ran with Mr. Pierce, even though it was raining and he even offered to make French toast for breakfast. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and it was the paper boy, Georgie Wilcox, who was running late. Harbin even offered to help him deliver the rest of the papers! Georgie was going to California and he offered his job to Harbin while he was gone. Harbin took it because he would be getting paid forty dollars a month for it. The next day, the parents sprayed some of the potion on Janey’s clothes because she was moving slowly as well.

Characters: Phillip, Mrs. Carmody, Mr. Carmody, Constance, Bob Waltham, Mrs. Perriwinkle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Phillip’s friends, Mr. Foxglove, Mrs. Foxglove, Cornell, Harvard, Emmy, Melody, Dr. Pillsbury, Nicholas Semicolon, Mr. Semicolon, Mrs. Semicolon, Jimmy Gopher, Roscoe, Wag(Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s dog), Lightfoot(Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cat), Miss. Weathervane, Evelyn Rover, Mary Crackle, Cornelia Whitehouse, Corinthian Bop, Harbin, Mrs. Quadrangle, Miss Hackett, Mr. Pierce, Janey, Sylvia, Annabell, Dr. Watkins, Janey, “Old-Timer”, Sylvia, Mona, Kathy, Georgie Wilcox

Plot: Each of the stories was about different problems faced by a child. Every time the children had difficulties, the parents called the doctor, who always referred them to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and she always knew what to do.

Theme: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle always had something for the kids who needed “help”

Setting: Phillip’s house, Mr. and Mrs. Foxglove’s house, Nicholas’s house and school, Mary’s house, Miss Piggle-Wiggle’s house

Opinion: I thought this book was a really good. I enjoyed reading it and thought it would be very funny in a classroom. I could definitely see it being popular. I liked how each of the scenarios were true to life, and although those medications weren’t real, they could be related to by children.