The Three Pigs

The Three Pigs

Author and Illustrator: David Wiesner

Publishing Company: Clarion Books

Copyright Date: 2001

Traditional Literature

I originally stumbled upon this story while at my practicum school’s library. I was interested in the story just solely due to the fact that it was a traditional literature piece on The Three Little Pigs as I have read and enjoyed previous versions of this. With that being said, I was not expecting what this book has to offer. This book combines the perfect touch of what is familiar to us through the original Three Little Pigs and spins that into something completely new and unexpected. This story is recreated in a way I have never seen before. It is absolutely unique in every single aspect. This story starts off as you traditionally know, “Once upon a time there were three little pigs…” the first pig builds his house out of straw. But as the wolf huffs and puff the story takes a turn into another world completely out of the realms of the traditional three little pigs. The pigs are blown into a world away from the wolf. In this world they discover several other characters that are familiar to us as readers. These characters come together in an unexpected way to teach the wolf the same familiar moral seen in the traditional Three Little Pigs. Once this has been done, “they all lived happily ever after.”

I absolutely love the illustrations throughout this whole book. They draw out aspects of the story that I never knew to be possible. This book is so original in this way. I believe the different use of media is what brings to life the feeling that the characters are really traveling through different pages of books in a whole other world that parallels their story. The illustrations are created by Wiesner through a variation of watercolor, gouache, colored inks, pencil, and colored pencil on Fabriano hot press paper. These illustrations are mostly double spread as this creates a majority of the movement throughout the story. The placement of the text also plays a large role on the movement of the illustrations throughout the book. As the characters move from the traditional story to the new world, the text changes. When the characters are in the traditional literature, the text is placed at the top of the page as expected. In contrast when the pigs are in the new world, the text is placed mainly in speech bubbles woven in and out of the frames of the traditional story as the characters explore the realms of this world.  

I believe this book is great for use in the classroom. I see so many great aspects of this book that could be used in a variety of educational way. One of the first ways I would use this book in my own classroom would be in correlation with the original The three Little Pigs. Ideally, I would have students compare and contrast the two different variations of the stories using a venn diagram. The second way I see that this book could be used in the classroom would be an extension of the comic like illustrations. I would have students assess what they know through recreating the text through their own comic strip of the story. The third way I would use this book in my own classroom would be for students to recreate their own version of a story they know very well, just as Wiesner has recreated The Three Little Pigs.