This Betty MacDonald series from the 1980’s (why did I think it was older?) is still appealing to readers today. The answer-to-every-parents’-prayer Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is consulted by anxious mothers (the moms pursue the majority of the child-rearing solutions rather than the fathers who come off as particularly harsh in some of the chapters. Oh, well…) whenever their child will not behave. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a cure for every child who will not behave: the child who won’t pick up toys, the slow-eater, the never-wants-to-go-to-bedder, the scaredy-cat, the child who won’t share, etc.. Also available in audio and republished with colorful covers, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is the original Nanny solution. I wish she lived in New York!
Month: August 2014
“Waiting for the Magic”
by Patricia MacLachlan (2011) At just 143 pages, this title about a family who adopts 3 dogs and a cat describes the brother and sister facing the question of what happens when their father walks out and leaves them behind. The mother left to take care of them drives to the animal shelter and takes all the pets home. As the children wonder if their father will return, they are captivated by the new members of the family who can ‘talk’ to them! the animals help them cope with the sadness of their loss and eventually help the entire family piece themselves back together again.
Library Memberships
Don’t know if they offer it, but was wondering if the Turtleback Zoo, Van Saun, etc. offer libraries member passes? These NJ parks and zoos are close enough to us to be attractive to our population. If more traditional museum passes aren’t being circulated a lot, perhaps these venues would be more popular?
Juvenile book on trains
I will order some additional books on trains for young readers. I did find several in the JP BP section that might be of interest to young readers. “I Love Trains” by Pilemon Sturges, “I’m Taking a Trip on My Train” by Shirley Neitzel and “Freight Train” by Donald Crews are three titles in the JP BP section.
The Greatest Speech, Ever: The Remarkable Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Gettysburg Address
Well, now that I’ve told you the title, you can guess the subject of the book. I’m not really a history buff, but after reading some glowing reviews on the publisher’s website ( which happens to be right here in Palisades) I decided to take it home to give it a shot. The book is by a General Sessions Judge in Tennessee, James L. Cotton, Jr., with a foreword by Former Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee. The events on 9/11 spurred his desire to try and determine how America came to be so hated by so many, when we were once viewed as the prime defender of freedom and equality. After hearing Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address read at Ground Zero a year later, in 2012, he was struck by Lincoln’s words that seemed to be ” stretching out from 1863 to speak to today’s Americans – to all humanity.” And he was off and running, so to speak. Cotton also employs the use of flashbacks to convey details of Lincoln’s life, in a non-didactic manner.
Anyway, this post grew out of a question I had when I was cataloguing this title. I came across the term SAN on the verso page and didn’t know what it meant. I was going to blog about that, but I thought I had better look it up first, and found out it is a Standard Address number that pertains to the publisher. The full definition can be found here. This is one reason why I love being a librarian: not just the thrill of the search, but also the ability to learn something new every day in an engaging environment.
Palisades Free Library Blog 