THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner

1.  BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wiesner, David. 2001. THE THREE PIGS. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618007016

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Weisner begins as if this were the classic tale of THE THREE PIGS with the wolf’s attempts to blow down the houses however it quickly evolves into some unexpected events.  With each huff and puff the wolf blows each pig right out of the story one by one.  The wolf is left puzzled wondering what has happened.  One pig folds a piece of the story paper creating an airplane for the three to ride on.  When the airplane crashes one pig discovers another page which turns out to be a page from a nursery rhyme.  The three pigs find themselves in the pages of HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE where they met cat.  Then onto the next story where they meet a dragon about is about to be slain.  After rescuing the dragon right from the pages of the story they decide to put the pages of their story back together and return home.  The three pigs, cat, and the dragon decide to teach the big bad wolf a lesson.  When the wolf arrives at the third pig’s house he was greeted with quite a surprise…the dragon!

3.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS

By combining the traditional story of THE THREE PIGS with other nursery rhymes and folktales Wiesner creates a brilliant story.  He keeps true to the original repeating phrases such as “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!” and “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin.”  Wiesner captures the reading even more by adding captions to the pigs when they are outside of the story.  Such as “Hey!  He blew me right out of the story!” and “Let’s explore this place.”

The illustrations were created using watercolor, gouache, colored inks, pencil, and colored pencil on Fabriano hot press paper.  As the pigs and other characters emerge from the pages they appear three dimensional adding a new sense of excitement for the reader.  When the pigs enter the other stories they conform to the book’s illustrative style.  When they enter HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE all of the characters took on the nursery rhyme appearance, and as they entered the story with muted colors the pigs lost their colors.  The use of white space and perspective on the pages is magnificent.  When the pigs are flying on the airplane to the upper right-hand corner of the page it gives the reading a sense that the characters can navigate anywhere imaginable. 

4.  REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

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

*New York Times, Book Review- “Wiesner’s dialogue and illustrations are clever, whimsical and sophisticated”

*2002 Caldecott Medal Winner

5.  CONNECTIONS

* Read THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner and then read another version of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS.  Discuss both books with the class and compare and contrast the two versions.  Some suggestions are THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS by Jon Sciezka or THE THREE LITTLE JAVELINAS by Susan Powell.

*Have the students write their own version of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS or a different ending to the story.

*Other selections by David Wiesner:

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