The Three Pigs
Who wrote it?
David Wiesner
Where can it be found?
Picture book – Try a good bookshop.
Adaptation?
Yes, turns the Three Little Pigs story on its head and pokes fun at conventions of storytelling.
My thoughts in exactly 10 words:
Brilliantly crafted parody where the pigs make their own destiny.
Extended thoughts:
This book won the Coldecott Medal in 2002 and it doesn’t take long to realise why. It is a delicious retelling of the Three Little Pigs story where the wolf, while blowing down the house of straw, blows the first pig right out of the story. The words continue, paying no attention to the missing pig, however the wolf looks puzzled as his dinner has disappeared. The first pig then rescues the other two pigs and they go exploring the new place they have discovered. My favourite page shows three blissfully curious pigs soaring through the air on a paper aeroplane made from the page of their story with the wolf at the door of the house of bricks. They then rescue a dragon from slaughter and are joined by the Cat with his fiddle. After some exploring they return to their own story with their new friends and the dragon scares away the wolf who stays at a distance for the rest of the story. They then break apart the words of the story to write their own “and they all lived happily ever aft..”
Favourite Quote:
“Many thanks for rescuing me, O brave and noble swine.”
Moral of the story in my own words:
Oh, I like the sound of this! Nothing like subversive pigs...
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