This Is... My (three) Favorite Children's Book(s)

(First off "What is 'this is'... and how do I join?")

Oh how I love Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Children adore her because she understands them--and because her upside-down house is always filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and her backyard with buried treasure. Grownups love her because her magical common sense solutions to children's problems succeed when their own cajoling and yelling don't. For the child who refuses to bathe, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle recommends letting her be. Wait until the dirt on her body has accumulated to half an inch, then scatter radish seeds on her arms and head. When the plants start sprouting, the nonbather is guaranteed to change her mind about that bath!

Who doesn't wish they'd grown up on Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's street?!

And just for fun, this is my favorite Crafty Children's book... one I just recently dug up on Amazon and purchased for my adult bookshelf. My sister and I pulled this book out for inspiration on just about every rainy day of our childhoods. Things to Make and Do is an "oldy", but a goodie!

And one other I will never forget... Amelia Bedelia! Did anyone else love her as much as I did (and do?!)? Really more of a series then single book, Amelia is a maid for a wealthy American family, husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. She repeatedly botches her assigned tasks by taking her instructions literally, to comic effect. Told to dust the furniture, she throws talcum powder all over it ('"The box does say 'Dusting Powder'"). Asked to dress the turkey, she sews it an outfit ("I wonder if she wants a 'he' chicken or a 'she' chicken?"). She makes sponge cake by mixing the cake batter with real sponge. When told to "run home" while playing baseball, she literally runs back to her employer's house. No matter how outrageous her mistakes, however, her fine cooking for her employers assures that all is forgiven.