The Three Pigs by David Weisner

The Three Pigs by David Weisner

*Review created for Texas Woman’s University graduate level class*

1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Weisner, David. 2001. THE THREE PIGS. New York, New York. Clarion Books. ISBN 0-618-00701-6
 
2.SUMMARY
The typical three pigs’ story takes a bit of a detour when the first little piggy gets huffed and puffed right out of the story. After the pigs are blown out of the story they take a walk on the wild side, right into “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle…” as well as rescuing a dragon from a fierce prince. What happens after you may ask, but you will have to read to find out.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS
David Weisner creates a fresh, new, innovative look for the pigs in The Three Pigs. This type of folktale, also known as a Beast Tale, is centered on three little pigs and a big, bad wolf. While the original tale centers on the wise pig that made his home of bricks, this story features a new escape route. The big, bad wolf, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!” ends up blowing the pigs right out of the story, and into another. The pigs go on one interesting adventure and befriend a cat, and even a dragon. The pigs do go back to take care of the wolf, along with a surprise.
The setting of this story is rather vague, we don’t really know when or where this story takes place, other than “once upon a time”. The story ends with the wise pigs triumphing over the big, bad wolf, and all ends happily. The Illustrations are essential to the story, and provide an entirely new dimension. Without the illustrations, such as the pigs creating an airplane and flying through several pages of white space; the story and text would be completely lost. The illustrations are needed to move the story along because Weisner has the text being dropped, scrambled, or just disappearing. The culture from where the parent story originated from is not present. There is little to no detail about where the story originated from. All in all, while this version of The Three Pigs was not my favorite, children should enjoy the new spin on an old tale.

4.REVIEWS
“With this inventive retelling…” Kirkus Reviews
2002 Caldecott Medal Winner

5.CONNECTIONS
Children could read other stories written or illustrated by David Weisner. After reading the story, children might like to come up with their own version to the Three Pigs, or their other favorite traditional tale. Children create puppets and reenact the story for different classes. The class could take a trip to your local zoo after reading other beast tales.

Works Cited

Kikrus Reviews. "The Three Pigs." Accessed June 22, 2012. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-wiesner/the-three-pigs/#review. Weisner, David. "The Three Pigs." Houghton Mifflin Company. Accessed June 22, 2012. http://www.hmhbooks.com/wiesner/threepigs.html.