Paula M. Craig (1933–2011)

I remember this book so clearly from my childhood. It is very easy to read for beginning readers with nice illustrations. It explains that books borrowed from the library are not yours, and that they should be treated with care and returned on time. As a very young child I was upset that people might treat library books badly and make Mr. Wiggle unhappy. I was so upset about this that my mom and I wrote and drew our own Mr. Wiggle book where all the children treat the books well, and Mr. Wiggle is always happy. Lol. :) This may have started my life-long reverence for books. Even in my own books, I never write in them, underline anything, or even dog ear the pages! Mr. Wiggle would be proud of me.… (altro)

Summary:
Mr. Wiggle is very sad because someone messed up his book. This is a cute book that teaches kids the importance of handling books responsibly. Mr. Wiggle shows several things that could ruin his book from dirty hands to tearing to coloring. At the end he says if you want to be his friend, you won’t write in his book. The illustrations are cute and accurate. The words flow and rhyme. Every parent or teacher has experienced the sadness of a young child ruining a good book. This book is a fun way of teaching children early on what not to do to a book.

Personal Experience:
I don’t know how many books have been ruined by my children. Unfortunately, with very little ones, saying that a certain behavior is bad doesn’t quite register. I wish I would have had this book sooner. I read this book to my pre-school group. Wow, their faces were so serious when they saw that little worm cry. By the end of the book they were all giving me hints on how not to destroy a book. “Wash your hands”, on said. “Only color on paper”, said another. They were so cute. Sympathizing with the little worm, Mr. Wiggle, really drove the point home for them.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1.) With a younger group of kids, I would read the book towards the beginning of the year. Then I would make a huge cut out version of Mr. Wiggle and place him next to the bookshelf to remind them to be responsible.
2.) I would have a big piece of paper taped to the wall. Then after I read the book, I’d tell the children that since we can’t do artwork in a book without doing harm, even if it seems fun, we’ll do art work on this paper and get it all out of our systems. I would set up stations with fingerprint dust, sticky papers, jelly, and crayons. The kids will go to each station or as many as they want and add their contributions to the big paper canvas.
3.) After I read the whole book, we go back to page one. With each page comes a new problem for Mr. Wiggle. After each page, we will discuss what good behavior would have prevented the mess on the book. For example; on page one, the book is covered with finger prints. What could have prevented this mess? Well, keeping our hands clean of course.… (altro)