HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MRS. PIGGLE-WIGGLE

It’s been 50 years since the maternal über-parent’s last new offering of magically effective cures for childhood contretemps, but neither Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle nor her adoring young neighbors (nor their issues) have aged a day in this fresh set—one chapter composed (but never published) by Betty and the rest by her daughter. Despite parental doubts (“But isn’t she very old fashioned? Would she know about modern things like television?”), Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle calmly comes through with a “Just-One-More-TV-Show Cure,” a “Won’t-Brush-Teeth Cure” and five more, sometimes with help from her remarkably capable pets or a bit of magic. The episodes are as cut and dried in structure as ever, and the figures in Boiger’s line-drawn vignettes carry on the antique air, with nary a pair of jeans or T-shirt to be seen. The pattern breaks at the end with a thoroughly splendid party for Mrs. P., thrown by the children and their parents and culminating in a serenade from the whole well-adjusted town—but it’s seeing the picky eaters, bad-mouthers and slovenly youth teased out of their habits that will, as always, draw readers. (Fantasy. 9-11)