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.
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