Well, to everybody’s great surprise, the first selection of the Muppet Book Club was a huge success — as soon as the selection was announced, Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree was immediately sold out. (All right, so it’s been out of print for a decade anyway. Go with me on this.)
So it is with an appropriate sense of our awesome responsibility and potential marketing clout that we announce the second selection for Book Club discussion: The Case of the Missing Mother, published in 1983 by Random House, written by James Howe and illustrated by William Cleaver.
You’re invited to come join the Book Club meeting on the Tough Pigs Forum message board, where we’ll be discussing how this book shaped our personal evolutions and revolutions. Even if you’ve never posted at the Forum before, feel free to come in anyway. Book Club meetings are open to all. This book is, naturally, also out of print — see what an impact we’re having? — so if you don’t have a copy, then you can read the one posted below.
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Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. Like all good Book Club selections, this book is about the relationship between mothers and their estranged children. How did reading this book help you to make peace with the issues from your own family of origin?
2. How would you characterize the relationship between Animal and his mother? Is there any way in which LaVerne’s parenting skills could be improved?
3. Is it me, or does Miss Piggy seem uncharacteristically helpful in this book?
4. Both Miss Piggy and Gonzo wear purple, and there are a number of other major purple elements throughout the book: the Muppets’ van, both houses, the monster families, the stage curtains, and Piggy’s purple-on-purple shoes. Does the color purple have any special significance for the Book Club?
Click here to read the Book Club comments on The Case of the Missing Mother!
