Comprehension Questions- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

By Betty MacDonald

Grades 2-7; Genre - Fantasy; GRL O; AR pts: 3.0

Meet Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as she rescues parents who need help managing their children’s bad habits.  Some ailments she helps treat in this book are impudence, greediness and selfishness, bad hygiene, and staying up late.

Comprehension Questions

Chapter 1

  1. What does Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle say about her husband?  He’s a pirate and after her buried all of his treasure in the backyard he died. P. 11
  2. What does Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle love to imagine while she’s washing dishes? She’s a princess and was kidnapped by a wicked witch.  The only way she’ll get free is to wash every dish and have the kitchen clean before the clock strikes. P. 14
  3. What did Mary Lou do after she spent time with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle? She went home and cleaned the kitchen without complaining.  p. 16
  4. What does Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle teach children about work? That it is fun p. 21

Chapter 2

  1. What is the “Won’t-Pick-Up-Toys” cure? Don’t clean Hubert’s room for him and wait until he can’t come out.  The room will get so crowded that he’ll clean it himself.  P. 28
  2. How did Hubert feel about his messy room? He liked it and didn’t want to come out.   P. 34
  3. What did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle do to make him want to come out of his room? She gathered all of the children and paraded by his house on the way to the circus.   P. 35
  4. What was in the note Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gave Hubert? He had to hurry and clean his room and they would wait for him.    p. 35

Chapter 3

  1. What does impudent mean? Talking disrespectfully and rude     p. 38
  2. What did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle give Mary to help her? Penelope a parrot    p. 42
  3. What is Penelope the parrot like? Very rude   p. 43
  4. How did Mary feel about Penelope? Thought she was funny at first, but then got frustrated with her impudence.    p. 46

Chapter 4

  1. What type of boy is Dick Thompson? He’s greedy and selfish   p. 51
  2. What was he supposed to do with the selfishness kit? Put the labels, locks and tags on all of his clothes and things    p. 57
  3. How did the children treat Dick when he had his name on all of his things? They laughed and made fun of him, ignored him, didn’t play with him     p. 62
  4. How did Dick feel when the children treated him this way? He was sad and didn’t want the labels or locks anymore.  He wanted to share.    P. 65

Chapter 5

  1. What did Patsy hate? Taking baths   p. 68
  2. What is the radish cure? Her mom is going to plant radish seeds in the dirt on Patsy’s skin and grow radishes.    P. 74
  3. How did Patsy feel about radishes growing out of her skin?  Scared, she wanted to bathe   p. 76
  4. How would you feel if this happened to you?

Chapter 6

  1. What do Bobby, Larry, and Susan not like to do?  Go to bed    p. 78
  2. How did the children behave when they went to bed late? Woke up late, quarrelsome, tired, grumpy    p. 82
  3. What was the children's consequence when they stayed up late? They missed fun things, they fell asleep everywhere, they got locked in the theater   p. 87
  4. After days of staying up late, how did the children feel about going to bed at 8:00? They begged their mother to let them    p. 90

Chapter 7

  1. What did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle give Allen’s mom to help Allen with his slow eating? Different sizes of dishes    p. 96
  2. What was happening as Allen ate less and less? He was tired and weak   p. 100
  3. What happened when it was Allen’s turn to exercise the pony? He was so weak, he just laid on the pony’s back   p. 101
  4. How did Allen feel when he ate again? Better, he had energy, he could exercise the pony   p. 104

Chapter 8

  1. What do the sisters Anne and Joan do all of the time? Fight    p. 106
  2. What did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tell Mr. and Mrs. Russell to pretend? They were Joan and Anne and to fight just like them    p. 112
  3. How did Anne and Joan feel about their parents fighting? They didn’t like it, it made them unhappy    p. 119