The Cat has been calling Spiggle "Mr. Piggle Wiggle." Indeed, the "Piggle Wiggle" name is so satisfying to say. (And hey, it rhymes with "Spliggle" anyway!)
The Cat did his last book report on the first Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
When I was a child, I read them all. I also read all the Betsy-Tacy
But yes, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is right there in my memory, even though her name is not Betsy.
The Cat loved the book, probably because he has an interest in behavior. After all, he's had quite the journey of being called "trouble," "bad" and other such things. When he play-acts, he likes to do the good and evil, but as "mean" and "nice." Of course he enjoyed finding out how other kids misbehave.
But as we read the first chapter together, I found myself inserting a couple sentences to indicate that the first child who went into Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's house (whose name is Mary Lou, although the first girl mentioned in the book is... Betsy) had permission to do so. I implied to the Cat that the child's mother knew and trusts Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
As the book reads, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle says that grown-ups make her nervous. The kids meet her independently of their parents, and it isn't until later that parents realize where their kids spend their afternoons.
In the book, the women are clueless (except for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle,) and the men are the workers and authority figures. Childcare is completely in the hands of the mothers, except for when the threat of punishment comes down on the father. Indeed, it is a "traditional" view of family dynamics.
But did I think that I could wander into an eccentric stranger's yard or that my mother was any less of an authority figure than my father? No. And yet, I found myself changing the book ever-so-slightly as I read it to the Cat. (I was scared-stiff after seeing a "dangerous stranger" video shot on our school campus: staging a muppet kidnapping on familiar ground may bring the point home, but I certainly got nightmares from it. I wasn't about to change my view of strangers just because of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)
Now that the Cat is intrigued, he'll probably read some of the other books on his own (the others in the series sit on his shelf.) I won't be around to censor, but I hope he doesn't get the wrong idea. Luckily, he is pretty cautious about things, so I probably shouldn't worry.
The "older" books are certainly charming, but it is definitely funny to see how "times have changed" and how seemingly innocent things can seem rather scary when seen with adult eyes.
