Review of The Three Pigs

Bibliography

Wiesner, David. The Three Pigs. Illustrated by David Wiesner. New York: Clarion Books, 2001. ISBN 0-618-00701-6

Plot Summary

The story starts out in the traditional manner but soon the pigs escape the story.  They fold a page of the story into a paper airplane and fly about until they crash land into another fairy tale.  They enter and exit a couple of additional tales until finally making their way back to their original story bringing the cat and his fiddle, and a dragon with them.  The dragon scares off the wolf and the pigs and company live happily ever after.  

Critical Analysis

The illustrations are genius.  Wiesner uses different mediums to illustrate and differentiate the different sections of the book.  The beginning of the story starts off with traditional fairy tale illustrations.  When the pigs escape the story they are drawn in a more realistic, almost photographic style.  When the pigs enter into other fairy tales they take on the graphic style of that story, cartoon like in Hey Diddle Diddle, and simple, sketch drawing in the dragon story.  When they finally return to their own story they are drawn in the original style used at the beginning of the book.

While inside a story the text follow the expected script.  When the pigs are outside of a story Wiesner uses text balloons to vocalize the pigs.   The story is creative and imaginative and I thoroughly enjoyed it.


Awards and Excerpts

ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Award, 2002 Winner Special Subjects United States

Borders Original Voices Award, 2002 Finalist Children's Picture Book United States

International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honor List, 2004 Winner Illustration International

Irma S. and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2001 Winner United States

Randolph Caldecott Medal, 2002 Winner United States

White Ravens Award, 2002 Winner United States United States

School Library Journal review excerpt  “Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite.”

Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices review excerpt  “Children, young teenagers, and adults, too, will find great pleasure and humor in the unexpected turns of this tale.”

Connections

Other books by David Wiesner:
Art & Max, 2010
Flotsam, 2006 - A Caldecott Medal book
Tuesday, 1991 - A Caldecott Medal book

Suggested activity:
Pair reading this book with a traditional version of The Three Little Pigs and compare and contrast the similarities and differences.