The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Scieszka, Jon.  The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! New York: Penguin Group, 1989. ISBN 978-0-451-47195-6.

PLOT SUMMARY

The story starts with Wolf making a birthday cake for his granny.  That day he had a terrible sneezing cold.  When baking the cake, he ran out of sugar, so he goes on to the First Little Pig’s house to borrow some.  Wolf knocks on the door which nobody answer and as he is about to leave his nose got itchy and he let out a big sneeze which cause the straw house to come tumbling down.  He found the First Little Pig dead and Wolf ate him since he thought it would be a bad idea to leave a good piece of ham go to waste.  Wolf goes on to the Second Little Pig’s house to ask for sugar.  When he is there, he lets out another sneeze which causes the Second Pig’s House to fall.  The Wolf found the second pig dead and since food can spoil if left out, Wolf decides to eat him too.  When Wolf goes to the Third Little Pig’s house to ask for sugar, the pig tells him to leave.  When Wolf is about to leave, the Third Little Pig made a comment about Wolf’s granny that Wolf didn’t like.  Wolf was huffing and puffing when the police arrived and took him away.  Wolf blames the news reporters for making him into the Big Bad Wolf.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Every story has two sides, and, in this story, we get to hear Wolf’s side.  In this first-person narrative, Wolf tells us how he got to be known as the Big Bad Wolf.   At the beginning, Wolf’s stating that he was making a cake for his granny portrays him as a very caring character, that you may even start believing him.  As the story unfold, you start questioning his actions.  The dark colors used set the mood of something sneaky going on.  In this entertaining story it will be up to the reader to decide whose side of the story is true. 

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

From Booklist: “Tongue-in-cheek hardly described this droll telling. Both the text and the stylized new-wave drawings are hip and funny.”

From Kirkus: Scieszka carries off this revision with suitably mordant humor, ably reflected in Smith’s dark, elegantly sophisticated illustrations.  Not for little children, but middle grades and up should be entertained while taking the point about the unreliability of witnesses.”

CONNECTIONS

Gather other Jon Scieszka books to read such as:

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. ISBN 067084487X

Math Curse. ISBN 0670861944

The Frog Prince, Continued. ISBN 014054285X

Gather other variant or version of the “The Three Pigs.” Such as:

Teague, Mark. The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf. ISBN 0439915015

Marshall, James. The Three Little Pigs. ISBN 0803705913

Trivizas, Eugene. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. ISBN 068981528X

Students can use this book to put together a reader’s theater.