Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald, Hilary Knight (Illustrator) ★★★☆☆

A fun way to have teaching moments! 

Fiction – Juvenile - Classics

Age Range: 8 and up Grade Level: 3 - 7
119 pages
Publication Date:  1947

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle #1

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children and they love her.  From her upside house to her genius for costumes to the possible pirate treasure in her backyard Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a child’s delight.  She is also a great help to parents, helping them solve problems and curing childhood behavioral ailments.

Ms. MacDonald has a real understanding of children and has written a manuscript that can withstand the cultural changes more than half a century later.  She starts the story off speaking directly to the in a vocal story telling style, making the story feel very personable and intimate.  The writing is relaxed and easygoing and fun.  A good chapter book to read out loud or have the kids read on their own.    Each chapter presents great teaching moments to talk over while avoiding the pitfalls of preaching and nagging.  Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, is imaginative and whimsical, always ready to play, but still very responsible.  A lot of the names are very silly, but the main issues like, eating slowly and constant fighting among siblings happen all of the time.  The subjects in this book can create a good chance for discussion and a way to spend time with your child.

Book Review Queue

Dear Fellow Readers,

After taking two weeks to get through two chapters of The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester without finding anything to compel me to continue I have decided to abandon this book and try to find other books on this fascinating subject by different authors.

Whymsy

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel ★★★☆☆

I heart microhistories!

 Non Fiction – Microhistory – Chronometer

Publication Date:  1995

Pages:  192

Literary Awards:  Royal Society Prize Nominee for General Prize (1997)

In a time when the seas represented the chance for growth, but the perils and very real possibility of being lost at a sea hampered efforts, John Harrison created the chronometer.  This clock was his answer to the longitude problem.  While others wanted to depend on the night skies John Harrison chose to depend on technology.  Entering his idea into the English contest with unheard of winnings, Harrison and his son spent decades fighting for what they believed was their due and to prove the worth of their machine.

First, I just want to say, I adore microhistories.  They are delightful little nuggets of stories that usually hold more importance in the grand scheme of things than we could have imagined.  I also appreciate how they usually lead me to other semi related topics.  My gushing over, I can now move onto the actual review

I personally have never really considered before how half hazard ship navigation was.  Most of my history lessons involved how the ships found places, not how they were basically just guesstimating their proximity to the desired destination, with very real and horrible consequences.  Ms. Sobel really laid out the issue in such a way for me, as a modern reader, to understand the dangers each voyage faced.  Once explained it was incredibly easy to appreciate how this clock could change things and why it was so incredibly important.

Ms. Sobel’s popular account of this monumental time in history is more suited to the everyday reader than an academic.  Her writing style leaned toward the elegant and the flow of the interesting and easy to follow narrative was engaging (let’s be honest, even a history lover like myself knows that it takes talent to keep the information from going dry).  Her story telling was well-constructed and had some really great anecdotes woven seamlessly in (the whole bit about how sauerkraut warded off scurvy was really fascinating).  Her assessment of the issues appears to be fair and free of hero worship.   She gives off the impression of some well able apt to understand the subject (okay, so I know that sounds kind like a “well duh” statement, but trust me, not all writer’s ambition is well matched to their ability).  It is short enough to be a one sit read, but in the fight for my attention it did tend to lose out, so it took me a few days.  It would have been nice to have a directory of characters at the back to help keep track of the players.  And I would have really liked to see a schematic and picture with working explanation of the chronometer (though I did find out after I finished writing the review that the 10^th anniversary addition apparently addresses this issue).  Overall I am impressed with Ms. Sobel and in pursuit of her other books.

ISBN  0802714625 (ISBN13: 9780802714626)

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne ★★★☆☆

Classic adventure story. (not exactly original I know but that is what it is)

Fiction – Classic – Adventure
240 pages

Age range: Grade 6 and up

Mr. Fogg makes a bet that he can circle the globe in eighty days, taking him and his new French servant, Jean Passepartout, on the adventure of a life time.

My first introduction to Jules Verne stands out quite vividly in my memory, but not in a good way.  When I was a preschooler I saw part of the movie, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, from the 1950s.  I had nightmares of being attacked by a giant squid for years.  So needless to say, it has taken me a while to warm up to the idea of reading his books (I’ve actually had this book for a couple of years, but only recently got the nerve to read it).  But with a little courage, I managed to do the hard part and start it.

Always when I begin to read an older book I am rather concerned how it will translate to my modern understanding (Charles Dickens was a complete disaster, and I never could tell whether I was coming or going with him, and don’t even get me started on Shakespeare).  Fortunately for me I bought a copy full of footnotes to help me put things into their historical context: the Penguin Classic series tend to be my favorite.  In addition I was very comfortable with writing style from the start, for the most part all of the antiquated language and references were easily explained.  I especially found it an interesting window into a different time period and thought process.  This is by no means a politically correct book and I don’t believe we should try to impose our modern opinions on it.  If you can’t handle this policy and understand the mindset and era of the author, then I really recommend not putting yourself through the ordeal of reading it.

Jean Passepartout, was the real human connect in the story, while Mr. Fogg, had a rather off-putting personality.  The only humanizing characteristic of this incredibly methodical man was his tendency to be generous.  Mr.  Fix could never seem to get the right end of the stick and by the end I felt rather badly for him.  And Auoda, a companion they pick up along the way, was a very special woman who cared more for character than money.  Like with most adventure stories the goal wasn’t to really show the inner life of the characters, so much as the action.  So the characters were only fleshed out so far.

This is a historically significant book: a notable change in the way people viewed the world.  Could you just imagine what it was like when it first came out?  It must have just entranced the imagination of its readers, and fueled dreams for new possibilities. It would be like us being told we could travel to the moon easily for the first time.  I recommend reading it not only because it is important classic (trust me some “classics” aren’t all they are cracked up to be), but, also, because it is a fun, quick adventure story that is completely non-taxing.