Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

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?

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

How does the novel represent gendered parenting conventions of the 1940s? How does MacDonald portray them, and what is their effect on the novel’s tone?

What are some of the literary devices MacDonald uses to create the novel’s humorous tone?

How does MacDonald characterize the overall setting of the neighborhood in which Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and the children live?

The novel includes a range of parenting choices and experiences in the mothers’ phone calls to other parents in the neighborhood. How does MacDonald use satire and comedy to represent those calls? To what effect?

The novel features unique names, like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and many of the parents and children mentioned in phone calls (Pergola Wingsproggle, for example). How does naming relate to the novel’s humor?

The novel represents the unique intergenerational friendship between Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and the neighborhood children. How is this friendship characterized, and how does it relate to the novel’s themes?