44 pages 1 hour read

Betty MacDonald

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1947

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Essay Topics

1.

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cures are based on the natural consequences of behavior. Which cure has the most direct, logical consequence? In which is the relationship between the behavior and its effect most complex? What evidence from the text supports this?

2.

While the novel’s tone and the setting of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s house are whimsical, its events are grounded in reality. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle does refer to magic, suggesting that the hump on her back is a “lump of magic” (9) and telling the children that she was formerly married to a pirate. How would you describe the interplay between the everyday and the magical in the novel?

3.

Aside from Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, which of the novel’s secondary characters is the most complex? What evidence from the text supports this?