THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner

1. Bibliography

Wiesner, David. THE THREE PIGS. New York: Clarion, 2001. Print. ISBN: 0439445175

2. Plot Summary

The story begins as the original "The Three Little Pigs." When the wolf goes to the house of the first little pig, the story begins to change. Instead of being eaten by the wolf, the pigs escape the original story. The pigs then wonder around viewing pages from other stories like HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE. They venture into a story containing a dragon. To save the dragon from death by a knight, they invite him to join them outside the story. Finally the pigs find their original story and decide to go home. They take the dragon with them to scare off the wolf. The pigs, dragon, and cat from HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE live happily together.

3. Critical Analysis

The author writes the story at the beginning from a traditional stand. Then allows the pigs to escape a bad situation.  The story is different from most because the pigs are able to get outside the story in a sense and wonder around various other stories. The author uses three different stories to complete one story that consist of a happy ending. If children have not read one story, hopefully they have read the others and therefore can relate to them. The story ends happily which many children enjoy.

The illustrations in the story begin traditional and also end traditional.  The middle of the story is where things are different. The pigs take on a three dimensional shape which helps the reader to notice that something different is happening in the story.  There is also a lot of white space during this time in the story. Readers are able to focus on the happenings of the story due to the white space. The pigs are also given speech bubbles so that the readers can understand that the pigs are no longer in a story. When the pigs enter the other stories like HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE,  the illustrations return to normal like in the beginning.  This helps the readers to understand that the pigs are now in a story instead of wondering outside the stories. At the end, we see the pigs return to a story because of the illustrations and no white spaces.  We also see the pigs write their own ending of "they lived happily ever after," using letters from the original story.

When reading this story to second graders, they were a little confused when the pigs escape the story.  After talking about the story line and what is happening, they seem to enjoy the story.  Some of their favorite parts are when the wolf's page gets crumbled up and when the dragon scares the wolf away.  One child noted that it was the best story of all the "The Three Little Pig" stories.

4. Review Excerpts

~2002 Caldecott Medal

~SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite."

~HORN BOOK MAGAZINE: "There are lots of teaching opportunities to be mined here--or you can just dig into the creative possibilities of unconventionality."


5. Connections

~Read the three stories used in THE THREE PIGS to compare where the three pigs entered or left the story
~Read other versions of the THE THREE LITTLE PIGS and compare/contrast the stories

6. Other books by David Wiesner
~SECTOR 7
~TUESDAY
~JUNE 29, 1999
~ART & MAX