The Three Pigs Book Review by David Wiesner

 

Written and Illustrated by David Wiesner

Published by Clarion Books in 2001

ISBN: 978-0618007011

Plot Summary: The big bad wolf comes along and blows down the house of straw and sticks of the first two pigs and eats them. The 3rd pig built his house out of brick and was safe and decides to escape when the wolf doesn't see them. The other 2 pigs magically come out of the wolf's stomach as they travel with the 3rd pig through a paper airplane to another land where they meet the cow that jumped over the moon and the prince who tries to slay the dragon but the dragon is rescued by the pig. The dragon travels back with the 3 little pigs and once the wolf tries to blow the house down again, the dragon goes and saves the pigs lives by scaring away the big bad wolf and the dragon and the pigs live happily ever after. 

Analysis: This story is mash up of different fairy tales and nursery rhymes and is told through the lens of the 3 little pigs when they go on adventures through stories and travel by paper airplane. I don't know how the first 2 pigs end up coming out of the wolf but that might be because I am using the e-reader version of this story and the kindle app does have issues sometimes with syncing picture books correctly. The illustrations are done in watercolor and it does give the reader the sense that they are back in olden times or should spark memories of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes for the older reader. I like the paneling that is done and the speech bubbles that show that action is happening and that the scene is changing by the pigs actually traveling to the nursery rhyme and fairy tale. 

Reviews:  Kirkus Book Review

With this inventive retelling, Caldecott Medalist Wiesner (Tuesday, 1991) plays with literary conventions in a manner not seen since Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1993).

The story begins with a traditional approach in both language and illustrations, but when the wolf huffs and puffs, he not only blows down the pigs’ wood and straw houses, but also blows the pigs right out of the story and into a parallel story structure. The three pigs (illustrated in their new world in a more three-dimensional style and with speech balloons) take off on a postmodern adventure via a paper airplane folded from the discarded pages of the traditional tale. They sail through several spreads of white space and crash-land in a surreal world of picture-book pages, where they befriend the cat from “Hey, Diddle Diddle” and a charming dragon that needs to escape with his cherished golden rose from a pursuing prince. The pigs, cat, and dragon pick up the pages of the original story and return to that flat, conventional world, concluding with a satisfying bowl of dragon-breath-broiled soup in their safe, sturdy brick house. The pigs have braved the new world and returned with their treasure: the cat for company and fiddle music, the dragon’s golden rose for beauty, and the dragon himself for warmth and protection from the wolf, who is glimpsed through the window, sitting powerlessly in the distance.

On the last few pages, the final words of the text break apart, sending letters drifting down into the illustrations to show us that once we have ventured out into the wider world, our stories never stay the same. (P

Connections: Students could rewrite their own story of the 3 little pigs and have the pigs travel on adventures to fairy tales, nursery rhymes, or even newer graphic novels like Dog Man or Captain Underpants. 

Other Books by David Wiesner

Flotsam
Tuesday
Sector 7 
Free Fall 


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