Mary Bard Jensen - and Betty MacDonald fan club fans,
join our new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle contest, please.
You have a new chance today.
( see info below )
We are looking for signed or dedicated first editions in great condition with dust jackets by Betty MacDonald and Mary Bard Jensen for our fans.
Betty MacDonald Memorial Award Winner Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography and new Betty MacDonald documentary.
You'll receive a Betty MacDonald fan club message very soon.
This message includes a very nice Betty MacDonald fan club surprise and many info on our current Betty MacDonald fan club projects.
Join one of our Betty MacDonald fan club research teams, please.
Thanks a million in advance for your outstanding support.
Let's talk about Betty MacDonald fan club book cover contest.
You can vote for your favourite Betty MacDonald book cover.
Deadline: June 30, 2016
Betty MacDonald fan club book cover contest winner will be owner of a signed first edition of one of Betty MacDonald's books.
In which language the book about Fräulein Pudel-Dudel has been published? ( see book cover above )
Send the answer, please and maybe you'll be the winner of Betty MacDonald fan club surprise.
Good luck!
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli and our 'Italian Betty MacDonald' - Betty MacDonald fan club honor member author and artist Letizia Mancino belong to the most popular Betty MacDonald fan club teams in our history.
Their many devoted fans are waiting for a new Mr. Tigerli adventure.
Letizia Mancino's magical Betty MacDonald Gallery is a special gift for our Betty MacDonald fan club fans.
Enjoy a new breakfast at the bookstore with Brad and Nick, please.
Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli shares his autobiography.
He is a real Casanova but this magical guy got fans from all over the world.
I belong to Mr. Tigerli's devoted fans.
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's last Vita Magica guest reader was a very famous satirical writer - Michail Krausnick.
We hope Angela Merkel's very close friend Mr. Erdogan won't have any problems with his work.
Jamie-Lee with Ghost got over 6,4 million views and more than 58.000 people like the song.
This is our Betty MacDonald fan club ESC 2016 TOP 5 according to Betty MacDonald fan club ESC fans in 40 countries.
Yours,
Maxi
Don't miss this very special book, please.
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Childhood Memories: Betty MacDonald
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ‘lives in a charming little house built upside down’
Children’s literature has always had a special place in my heart; not only was I first exposed to the English language through these books, but also because these books apparently spoke enough to me that I’m now doing a degree in English Literature. As such, one of my favourite children’s series will always be the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series by American author Betty MacDonald.
The eponymous Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, the cheerful widow of a
pirate, lives in a charming little house built upside down, in an
equally charming little town. In each book she makes it her mission to
rid the children in her neighbourhood of various bad habits using the
magical chest her husband left behind.
Looking
back on the books now, the town that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lived in was
probably not a very endearing place, given that it was full of kids who
each had one continuing fault. Granted, things have to be put on a
spectrum; Melody Foxglove’s penchant for excessive crying, or Nicholas
Semicolon’s bullying could both probably be considered more annoying
than Harbin Quandrangle’s constant daydreaming, or Lee and Mimi
Wharton’s persisting boredom. In fact, I still have my doubts whether or
not Harbin’s or the Wharton siblings’ afflictions qualify as real
faults warranting some sort of cure. I suppose also, as a child then
myself, I should have been a little bit offended by her attempts to
right many of the bad habits I had at the time, but I think most of that
was masked by the fact that I was so happy to read a series of short
stories bound into a chaptered book, Maybe even on some unconscious
level, I always behaved better after reading.
In fact, some of the
cures that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle comes up with are thoroughly
entertaining. To cure Fetlock Harroway of his compulsive lying, Mrs.
Piggle-Wiggle’s collection of friendly farm animals assure him that
there isn’t really a reason for Fetlock to lie and that he is a
wonderful boy just the way he is. ‘The Radish Cure’ introduces us to
Patsy Waters, who dislikes bathing. As such, Patsy’s mother Mrs. Waters
is advised by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to leave Patsy alone for long enough
that radishes can be planted on her to prove a point. I’ve always
wondered about why MacDonald chose radishes as the vegetable to plant on
Patsy—is it because they can be harvested quickly?
However, there
is also a darker side to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s various cures, so to
speak. To cure Allen of taking super tiny bites in ‘The
Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker Cure,’ Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle presents his mother
with a set of specially-made dishes made to serve smaller and smaller
portions until Allen runs out of energy and loses the ability to
function. Upon revisiting that particular story, I find myself slightly
concerned that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is in a sense advocating starving
Allen – even if only for a short amount of time. When Allen’s mother
voices this concern, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle appears to be not very bothered,
as if she’s absolutely sure that her remedy will work. The fact that it
might not doesn’t seem to have registered. However, in the vein of
Roald Dahl, who I still view as one of the most successful children’s
storyteller of all time, no children’s tale is complete without a
retrospective nugget or two to worry (or perhaps even intrigue) the
parents.
In short, despite some slightly alarming realisations that have since become obvious to me as an adult reader, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
series is a charming gem for children, which quite accurately
encapsulates growing up in idyllic 1950s America. This bit is
particularly dear to me as someone who has grown up in a small-town
environment. Acting both as a fun advice column and maybe additionally
as slightly tongue-in-cheek cautionary tales for the young reader, the Mrs Piggle-Wiggle series is overall a gentle, motherly breeze from the past, and well worth a look.
