The Three Pigs (Wiesner)

Wiesner, David. 2001. The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 978-0618007011

Plot Summary:

David Wiesner's The Three Pigs tells the story of the three little pigs. As in other versions of the story, there are three pigs who build houses and a wolf that comes to blow the houses down. However, the storyline veers from what is familiar. The pigs are blown out of the pages! Suddenly, the pigs take a paper airplane ride and meet the cat and fiddle and a dragon guarding a golden rose. Joined by the cat and the dragon, the pigs return to the brick house. The wolf comes, but he does not blow the house down. Instead, the dragon scares the wolf, who runs away. The book ends with the pigs, the cat, the dragon, and the golden rose "liv[ing] happily ever after."

Critical Analysis:

Wiesner skillfully combines the the story of The Three Pigs, The Cat and the Fiddle, and fairy tale with a dragon and a golden rose to create a new story and adventure for the pigs. It is a funny and very different look at the traditional story. This version of the story requires readers to suspend their previous experiences with the story and join the pigs in a fantastical ride.

The Three Pigs begins predictably, but after the first few pages, the traditional story is no more. Through the use of text or thought bubble, Wiesner fractures the fairy tale. Children who are used to the classic story will wrinkle their foreheads in confusion (as my five year old daughter did!) as the pigs fly and sneak off the pages and use their new-found freedom to literally fly into other stories. My son and daughter enjoyed the pigs' adventure, but my daughter, who knows the traditional story and the story of The Cat and the Fiddle, needed me to stop after the pigs met the cat and explain what was happening.

The varied type of illustrations used throughout the tale also reinforce the fracturing of the story. At the beginning, the illustrations are line drawings typical to children's picture books, but as the story progresses and the fracturing begins, the illustrations change. The pigs take on a more realistic quality while the wolf remains a typical line drawing. As the pigs enter into the various other tales in the story, the illustrations change again. When they meet The Cat and the Fiddle, the illustrations become cartoon like, but when they meet the dragon protecting the golden rose, the drawings become black and white pencil sketches until the pigs invite the dragon to join them. Then, the dragon takes on a more realistic texture, just like the pigs, as they leave the dragon's fairy tale. Finally, the book returns to the traditional drawings of the book's beginning at the book's end as the dragon, cat, and pigs sit around eating bowls of soup.

The panel style of story telling in the book is reminiscent of comic books, which goes along with the chat or thought bubbles the characters use to communicate with one another.

Review Excerpts:

"In Tuesday (Clarion, 1991), Wiesner demonstrated that pigs could fly. Here, he shows what happens when they take control of their story. In an L. Leslie Brooke sort of style (the illustrations are created through a combination of watercolor, gouache, colored inks, and pencils), the wolf comes a-knocking on the straw house. When he puffs, the pig gets blown "right out of the story." (The double spread contains four panels on a white background; the first two follow the familiar story line, but the pig falls out of the third frame, so in the fourth, the wolf looks quite perplexed.) So it goes until the pigs bump the story panels aside, fold one with the wolf on it into a paper airplane, and take to the air. Children will delight in the changing perspectives, the effect of the wolf's folded-paper body, and the whole notion of the interrupted narrative. Wiesner's luxurious use of white space with the textured pigs zooming in and out of view is fresh and funny. They wander through other stories-their bodies changing to take on the new style of illustration as they enter the pages-emerging with a dragon and the cat with a fiddle. The cat draws their attention to a panel with a brick house, and they all sit down to soup, while one of the pigs reconstructs the text. Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite." School Library Journal, Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA

"Even the book's younger readers will understand the distinctive visual code. As the pigs enter the confines of a storybook page, they conform to that book's illustrative style, appearing as nursery-rhyme friezes or comic-book line drawings. When the pigs emerge from the storybook pages into the meta-landscape, they appear photographically clear and crisp, with shadows and three dimensions. Wiesner's (Tuesday) brilliant use of white space and perspective (as the pigs fly to the upper right-hand corner of a spread on their makeshift plane, or as one pig's snout dominates a full page) evokes a feeling that the characters can navigate endless possibilities--and that the range of story itself is limitless." Publishers Weekly

Awards:
2002 Caldecott Medal
2002 ALA Notable Children's Book

Connections:

Fractured fairy tales are fun for readers. Children who find this version of The Three Pigs enjoyable would also enjoy reading The True Story of the Three Pigs and learning the wolf's side of the story.

Teachers in Texas might use the lesson "Cowboys and Castles: Interacting with Fractured Texas Tales" found on readwritethink.org. This lesson uses children's knowledge of traditional fairy tales to introduce fractured fairy tales and has students read fractured fairy tales with a Texas connection such as Bubba the Cowboy Prince.