When I first started watching this cartoon version of Little Miss Trouble, I thought it was going to be the same as the book. But a few subtle differences and a well placed comment on youtube make the cartoon worthy of its own entry.
I started to think more about this story when I saw the following comment about the cartoon on the youtube clip by Hoktak: “Haha, serve that little troublemaker right for being a gossipmonger! Mr. Small, Mr. Bump, and Mr.Tickle got her back good!”
Then it started to click. Here is another reason why I don’t like this story. Little Miss Trouble makes her trouble through gossip. Typically, gossip is understood to be something that is done by mean girls who like to spread nasty rumors. Gossip is also considered to be a particularly insidious and pointless activity that women-with-nothing-better-to-do engage in. It has no real or productive purpose other than to humiliate or anger the object of its talk. By using gossip as the way that Little Miss Trouble makes trouble, Hargreaves reinforces both the link between girls and gossip and the idea that girl(y) troublemaking is not real action but just mean, vicious talk.
Word count: 199 words