The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Scieszka, J. (1989). The true story of the three little pigs. New York, NY: Puffin Books. 

Texas Bluebonnet Award, 1991 - 1992

Jon Scieszka expertly tells a twisted version of this classic tale.  It is told from the wolf’s point-of-view, and he tries to explain how the incident with the three little pigs was not his fault and just a big misunderstanding.  He claims he had simply been baking a birthday cake for his old granny when he ran out of sugar and decided to borrow some from his neighbors, the pigs.  But, when he went to each of their houses, he had a cold and sneezed and the house of straw and the house of sticks fell down.  The first two pigs were literally scared to death, and because he could not leave perfectly good food there, he had to eat them.  When he goes to ask the last pig for some sugar, the pig is rude and yells that he hoped the wolf’s granny sits on a pin.  Of course, the wolf gets upset and was trying to break down the pig’s door, sneezing the entire time.  When the police arrived, they misunderstood the situation, and he was taken to jail.  He claims the news reporters framed him and were responsible for making him into the big bad wolf.

Lane Smith’s comical illustrations perfectly complement this funny, rethought tale.  He does an excellent job of portraying the wolf as misunderstood, not scary, and even likable.  Smith displays his creativity in multiple places throughout the book.  Some examples include: when the wolf is baking the cake, rabbit ears are poking out of it; when the wolf is in jail and holding his bucket out to the reader, it is labeled as “Pig Penn;” and throughout the book, the words are written with letters made of straw, sticks, bricks, wolf tails, pig snouts, roof tops, newspaper clippings, and curly pig tails.