Module 2 Book Review #4: The Three Pigs

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*This book review was written for one of my MLS courses at SHSU.*



BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wiesner, David. (2001). THE THREE PIGS. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780618007011

PLOT SUMMARY
The Three Pigs by David Wiesner first begins with how three pigs each parted ways and built a house out of various materials (straw, sticks, and bricks). A dangerous wolf comes along and attempts to enter the first little pig’s house; however, when the little pig refuses to let him in, he huffs, puffs, and blows the house away. The thing is, the little pig actually got blown out of the story, and a result, he goes to gather the other two pigs and tells them to join him since the wolf is going to do the same thing to their houses. Once the three little pigs escaped the story, they decide to go on a little adventure and end up in other various stories. After discovering these other places, the pigs return to their original story and change up their destined ending, along with some new story friends.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Because David Wiesner begins The Three Pigs with the typical plot of the original traditional tale, readers may feel that this book is way too predictable. However, the fact that Wiesner had the first little pig “blown” out of the story on the third page actually could confuse the reader since it is not part of the original, yet it could also intrigue them and make them keep reading to hurry up and find out what’s next. Also, the little pigs acknowledge the fact they are characters within a story, which then allows them to recognize the power they have to change their destined ending. In order to do this, they go out to explore their possibilities and realize there are so many options they could choose from. Because of this the theme “adventure awaits” is heavily present.

As for Wiesner’s illustrations, they definitely vary and flow quite nicely with the story’s interesting plot. In the beginning, Wiesner presented his drawings as if they were apart of some old cartoon storybook. The colors used are very light and seem to only consist of beige, brown, and gold tones, which definitely help bring out the animals’ physical characteristics. In addition to this, Wiesner drew out his different scenes in boxes, obviously representing pages within a book. However, whenever the pigs exit the story, they appear to be three dimensional. Readers can see the pig’s hair on their bodies and are able to see the pigs’ joyfulness through their faces. The pigs turn their story into a plane and fly through a blank white space, indicating that at first, they are not aware of the world beyond theirs. Whenever they land in different stories, their appearances change once again. For example, they first enter a nursery rhyme setting, transforming them into pastel happy-like illustrations. Another example is when they enter an old medieval tale, in which they are now little brown sketches. It can be inferred that Wiesner went ahead and provided these characteristic changes in order to show the many possibilities the little pigs had when it came to their story.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
*2002 Caldecott Medal Winner
*Starred Review from School Library Journal: “Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite.”
*Starred Review from Booklist: “Wiesner has created a funny, wildly imagined tale that encourages kids to leap beyond the familiar, to think critically about conventional stories and illustration, and perhaps to flex their imaginations and create wonderfully subversive versions of their own stories.”

CONNECTIONS
*Readers should read an original version of “The Three Little Pigs”. Then they can compare and contrast the two versions, especially the endings.
*To incorporate writing, educators can have students research other traditional tales and then write their own version of how the three little pigs crashed into those stories.
*Tuesday is another Caldecott Medal book by David Wiesner. Readers can compare the two books and recognize the different techniques the writer incorporated in order to win this amazing award.

PICTURE SOURCE
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Pigs-David-Wiesner/dp/0618007016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537387353&sr=1-1&keywords=the+three+pigs+by+david+wiesner




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