Three little Pigs (Folklore)

Three Little Pigs by David Wiesner is a creative retelling of the original story the three little pigs. This book is about three pigs who went into the world to seek their fortune. Their first task was to build their homes, they each built their homes out of different materials. A wolf, an enemy of the pigs, comes along and blows all the houses down expect for the third pig who made his home out of bricks. The pigs in this story escape the wolf by moving through different story books and changing the ending to their story.

            I would place this book in the folklore/fairytale genre because the story of the three little pigs is one that has been passed down from generations. This story has a strong message which is the only way to defeat your problems is to prepare for them properly and you will prosper. The story is begun using “once upon a time” and ends in “happily ever after”. Also, another characteristic this book has that classifies it as it genre is good conquering evil. In this story, the three little pigs ultimately prosper over the wolf who is bad because he tried to blow down their houses and eat them.

            The illustrations of this book have a vital role in the telling of the story. The author uses the illustrations to show the pigs moving from one folklore to the other. The reader can visualize the pigs running across pages and finding a new story to run into. He uses colors that correspond to the story he is trying to represent. He also changes the style, technique and media to represent the changing in stories. The pictures take up the whole page, and the author even have some pages where there are only illustrations and no words at all. The illustrations in this book is so important and really attracts the reader to the story because of its uniqueness.

            The setting of this book is not really defined by time and place, more so by the story. In the beginning of the book, the pigs are in their own book then they move to a new book (Hey diddle diddle), from there they move to a story about a dragon who guards his gold. The style of this book is kind of harder to understand only because most pages have little to no words at all and rely solely on the pictures to tell the story. This book was written for older children with more reading experience. If I would have to choose a theme for this book, I believe it is teaching children that you can make your own ending—don’t be confined to what people think or expect something to happen; ultimately you are the writer of your own story. The characters in this book are the three pigs, who are not really developed. All the reader knows about the pigs is that they are set out to change the ending of their story.

            A motivational activity that can be given to readers is to have them illustrate a different ending for the book as the pigs did in their story. This allows them to think about the text different then just reading the book and allows them to explore their creativity. A good reader response question for this book is to discuss what they believe the authors purpose is for writing the book and how they will apply the theme to their own lives.

            David Wiesner is a great author! I love this book because he put a nice spin on an old traditional that rarely gets told differently. He is an author who is known to create great work and he puts much time and attention into his illustrations. He has another book that he has composed which also displays great illustrations that just make you want to read the book. I recommend this book and other books written by him.

Wiesner, D. (2002). Three little pigs. Clarion Books: New York, NY.