Traditional Literature: The Three Pigs

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wiesner, David, Trans.  2001.  THE THREE PIGS Ill. by David Wiesner.  San Francisco:  Clarion Books. ISBN  0618007016

PLOT SUMMARY

This version of The Three Pigs begins just like all of the others. The wolf visits the first pig’s house and repeats the iconic lines: “Little pig, little pig. Let me come in!” and the pigs answers with the familiar “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin.” But as the wolf blows the house down, the pig is blown out of the story. The wolf continues on and meets the same conclusion. As the pigs realize they are no longer in their own story they fold up the pages of the next scene into a paper airplane and start to fly. They see the stories of many other fairy tales such as “Hey diddle diddle”. They free the cat that plays the fiddle and bring him along on their voyage. The next story is of a dragon who is protecting a gold rose. A prince is sent to slay the dragon and the pigs rescue him from certain death and bring him along on their voyage. They eventually travel back to their own story where the wolf is about to blow down the house made of brick. The dragon opens the door and scares the wolf away ending all of the pig’s problems. They are live happily ever after. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The setting of The Three Pigs starts out in the traditional setting of the straw, stick and brick houses but quickly changes into something else entirely. The illustrations of the story are very detailed and look very similar to the pictures you would see in a graphic novel. The illustrator does a very good job of having the characters show their feelings. As the wolf finds out there is no pig to eat, you can clearly see the confusion on his face as the story is not going the way it should. The illustrator also uses speech bubbles to show the dialogue of the pigs once they leave the story.

As the pigs are blown out of their story and into a parallel one, the illustrations are no longer colorful. The only color comes from the paper airplane (made of the pages of their own story) on which they travel. The pigs travel through blank white pages until they enter another story. Along the way they meet new friends and bring them back to their own story. The true happy ending happens when their dragon friend helps scare the wolf away.

As the story ends, the words on the pages fall off the book to signify the end of the pig’s imaginative journey through the parallel world. 

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “Wiesner's brilliant use of white space and perspective (as the pigs fly to the upper right-hand corner of a spread on their makeshift plane, or as one pig's snout dominates a full page) evokes a feeling that the characters can navigate endless possibilities--and that the range of story itself is limitless.”

SHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite.”

BOOKLIST: “Wiesner has created a funny, wildly imagined tale that encourages kids to leap beyond the familiar, to think critically about conventional stories and illustration, and perhaps to flex their imaginations and create wonderfully subversive versions of their own stories.”

CONNECTIONS

*Caldecott Medal Winner

* “I love this book. Are there more?” Trent (2^nd Grader)

* This would be a great book to inspire students to write their own alternative storylines to popular fairytales.

*Other stories by David Wiesner:

Wiesner, David. FLOTSAM. 0618194576

Wiesner, David. TUESDAY. 0395551137

Wiesner, David. SECTOR 7. 0395746566