Traditional Literature Review #2 - THE THREE PIGS

 The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

1.     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wiesner, David. The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books, 2001.  ISBN 978-0-618-00701-1

2.     PLOT SUMMARY

The Three Pigs is a re-telling of the classic The Three Little Pigs with a twist.  It begins by following the traditional story, with the wolf knocking on each pig's door and threatening to blow their house in and eat them. However, each pig cleverly escapes the wrath of the wolf by exiting the story itself.  They went exploring and landed upon the nursery rhyme of Hey diddle diddle.  They left there and went to another story to save a dragon who was hiding a golden rose and was about to be slayed. They return to the original story with their new friends to be approached by the wolf who threatens to blow the brick house down.

3.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This Caldecott winner is an example of the very creative writing of David Wiesner and very imaginative illustrations. He starts out telling a traditional tale and quickly grabs the attention of the reader as the story unfolds in a very non-traditional manner. The writing is creative, but the illustrations really make this book a great work of art. Some of the pictures actually seem to be coming off of the page. The art work captures a life like quality as the pigs and the dragon come to life.  When one of the pigs peeks through the pages and tells the other pig “Come on- it’s safe out here” was one of my favorite lines.  Even the use of 2 blank pages in the story was brilliant after the pigs fly off on a paper airplane. The writing also takes on a different approach with the use of bubbles for dialogue similar to that of a graphic novel.

4.  REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Caldecott Medal – 2002

ALA Notable Children’s Books – 2002

School Library Journal Best Book – 2001

From School Library Journal: “Artwork explodes off the page and the layout pushes bookmaking convention as the porcine siblings and their pals explore new literary territory.”

From 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.”

5.     CONNECTIONS

Gather other David Wiesner Caldecott Medal books to read such as:

Flotsam, ISBN: 978-0-618-19457-5

Tuesday, ISBN: 978-0-395-87082-2

Compare and contrast familiar fairy tales with their variants. Depending on the book, comparisons can be drawn in terms of characters, themes, settings, and plots.  Some examples are:

Cinders: a chicken Cinderella, ISBN: 978-0-399-25783-4

Little Red Writing, ISBN: 978-0-811-87869-2

The Gingerbread Cowboy, ISBN: 978-0-060-77863-7