Day 10 - A book that reminds you of home

This was tough. Reminds me of home? I read every book at home. What does this mean? So I came up with this: Pippi Longstocking and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Because there was a time when I was a kid that we had a horrible blizzard. The power went out for days. Things were very bleak. And especially for a kid? Boring. So my mother took it upon herself to read these two books aloud to me to keep me entertained, and I will never not think of a warm, nurturing home when I think of these stories.

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 [b:Amelia Bedelia|774001|Amelia Bedelia|Peggy Parish|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353400157s/774001.jpg|888927] 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. It almost makes me sad how many of the things I remember thinking were just AMAZING now came across to me as silly or ridiculous. For example, convincing children that doing dishes or making beds is fun by having them pretend that they'll be punished by a wicked witch or evil queen if they don't seems rather counter-productive now, but the dress-up parts were all I focused on back then.

I'll definitely recommend this to my students; I have several who might be just as delighted by it as I was at their age.

I read as a child and I know I love it but I completely forget it. Have to reread.

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 under the dirt while they slept. When the radishes sprouted, the kids couldn't clean up fast enough! Perhaps she was the precursor to the idea of natural and logical consequences, the most used form of discipline these days. I always wondered what Dr. Benjamin Spock thought of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

P.S. My wife reminded me to state that I am pretty much reviewing the series of Mrs. Piggle wiggle books. I can't vouch for the specific example I used being in this specific book. My wife catches things like that. I think she has a little Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in her.

My daughter really enjoys this series. She's almost seven and has read this omnibus edition several times now. We're currently on a re-read at bedtime.
For older (9-13) kids if reading alone due to vocabulary and context difficulty (they were written in the late 40's), otherwise perfectly acceptable for younger kids in content.
Cute pen and ink illustrations throughout each book.