MRS. WIGGS Of The CABBAGE PATCH. A Thrushwood Book.

To my surprise while researching our Louisville, KY genealogy roots I came across the connection of Miss Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch and Louisville. I had never realized the author was from Louisville. I opened my book case to find my 1962 copy and re-read it at once. It was as if our family stories came to life. The poverty of a hard scrabble life along with ingenuity were just as my Granny described her life. I think if you can get a child to read this and understand what roots our people have in poverty (not just something now known in their minds as a distant third world problem)it could really enlighten them.

My mother bought an old copy of this in the mid-fifties and read it to me as a bedtime story. I think I remember her telling me that her mother did the same thing for her back in the early part of the century after moving here from Vienna, Austria.[Miss] Rice had remarkable writing skills, and also a fertile (and rather profound) imagination. All this is displayed firstly in her recreations of the poor white southern dialect coming out of the mouths of Mrs. Wiggs and her family - the speech cadences are marvelous, and very musical. But there are also the little snatches of poetry and proverbs she composed for the beginning of each chapter, which truly border on the sublime. And the occasional descriptive passages are full of feeling and artistry, clear-sightedness and wisdom. There are plentiful little seed thoughts, scattered discretely to instruct young people, and not only consciously. Even if one doesn't understand this or that little gem, a child would tend to embrace it, taking it in on some level - each one serves its young patrons well, beginning to work it's little lifelong magic. This is a very deep, free-flowing child psychology, several years before Freud's more cantankerous "discoveries" became widely known and intellectually fashionable.Much of this "short" story is about the interaction between the poor and the rich, and how each serves to enrich the life of the other. This is done in a well-rounded fashion, never becoming preachy, often with beauteous touches of humor, tenderness, and sadness. Sure the story is in big print, and it's obviously not Henry James, but there's nothing going on here that could ever be termed 'simplistic'.I guess you could say that back in the old days when literacy was considered more a gift than somewhat of a burden, they really knew how to instruct, as it were.

Most children were privileged to read about Mrs. Wiggs in grade school but I only recently discovered this delightful little book. Mrs. Wiggs turns lemons into lemonade, finding good in everybody and everything.

I was first introduced to this story some 33 years ago by my fourth grade teacher, Ms. Elsie Sanders, at Kimberly Elementary School. To this day, I vividly remember the values conveyed through Mrs. Wiggs actions. This is a book that should be read aloud to an audience. It inspires young minds to creatively and compassionately respond to life's challenges, as well as inspiring one to get more involved in reading. I give it two thumbs up!

This is a gem of a children's book. I highly recommend it for kids over 10 and adults. It's a story about a poor family led by a very eccentric matriarch. The children's adventures will delight young readers. Adults will shed some tears, because the story deals (in a compassionate and hilarious way) with serious themes -- poverty, equality, social responsibility, family ties, loss. Granted, the book will seem old-fashioned today, but everyone I have ever known who has read this book has felt enriched and has kept it on the shelf to revisit periodically.