The Three Pigs

Title: The Three Pigs

Author: David Wiesner

Publisher: Clarion Books

Date: 2001

Number of pages: 40

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Summary: Once upon a time three pigs built three houses, out of straw, sticks, and bricks. Along came a wolf, who huffed and puffed...But the rest is unexpected...Author David Wiesner pushes the boundaries of the classic story. One by one, the pigs exit the fairy tale's border and set off on an adventure of their own. As the pigs accumulate outside their storybook pages and look in on the wolf they quickly realize they have been taken out of their original fairytale story. The even go as far as folding a page of their own story into a paper airplane, the pigs fly off to visit other storybooks. They visit two other stories, rescuing about-to-be-slain dragons and luring the cat and the fiddle out of the nursery rhyme. The story concludes with them bringing cat and the fiddle and the dragon to their last home, the brick house. When the wolf came for a visit he was in for a pleasant surprise when meeting the three pigs new friends. It was the last thing he expected.

My Reaction: I thought this was an excellent twist to the classic story. I didn't expect what was coming, so the witty and silly illustrations were really a surprise. I felt that the illustrations (like a comic) helped me get into the story and keep track of which story was which. Although it was semi- busy, the text and comic view-points helped the reader keep the story altogether.


Potential Problems: Being that the illustrations are busy it may be difficult for the younger readers to stay enthused in the storybook as they are very distracted with the different stories on each page. It can probably be confusing for children to differ from the original story, although fun.

My Recommendation: This book would best fit in a children's classroom reading time. I would assume it would be best understood with a teacher reading aloud to the children as they can hear the words, and watch the story unfold before them. The illustrations present a great picture for what is going on in the text of the story.