The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! [Hardcover]

Jon Scieszka (Author), Lane Smith (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 1989 | Age Range: 5 and up | Series: Viking Kestrel Picture Books

A spoof on the three little pigs story, this time told from the wolf's point of view. Lane Smith also illustrated Hallowe'en ABC which was one of The New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Did the story of the three little pigs ever seem slightly biased to you? All that huffing and puffing--could one wolf really be so unequivocally evil? Finally, we get to hear the rest of the story, "as told to author Jon Scieszka," straight from the wolf's mouth. As Alexander T. Wolf explains it, the whole Big Bad Wolf thing was just a big misunderstanding. Al Wolf was minding his own business, making his granny a cake, when he realized he was out of a key ingredient. He innocently went from house to house to house (one made of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks) asking to borrow a cup of sugar. Could he help it if he had a bad cold, causing him to sneeze gigantic, gale-force sneezes? Could he help it if pigs these days use shabby construction materials? And after the pigs had been ever-so-accidentally killed, well, who can blame him for having a snack?

As with The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, (another stellar collaboration by Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith), children who know all the old stories by heart will delight in reading impudent new versions. Here, Scieszka's text is clever, savvy, and tabloid-quick, and Smith's stretchy-strange illustrations complete this funny, irreverent, thoroughly original tale. (Ages 4 to 8)

From Publishers Weekly

In this gaily newfangled version of a classic tale, Scieszka and Smith ( Flying Jake ) argue in favor of the villain, transforming the story of the three little pigs into a playfully suspicious, rather arch account of innocence beleaguered. Quoth the wolf: "I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started, but it's all wrong." According to his first-person testimony, the wolf went visiting the pigs in search of a neighborly cup of sugar; he implies that had the first two happened to build more durable homes and the third kept a civil tongue in his head, the wolf's helpless sneezes wouldn't have toppled them. As for his casual consumption of the pigs, the wolf defends it breezily ("It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw") and claims cops and reporters "framed" him. Smith's highly imaginative watercolors eschew realism, further updating the tale, though some may find their urbane stylization and intentionally static quality mystifyingly adult. Designed with uncommon flair, this alternative fable is both fetching and glib. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Age Range: 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile; 1 edition (October 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670827592
• ISBN-13: 978-0670827596
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.3 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (246 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Foxes & Wolves
  • #40 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Pigs
  • #41 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Farm Animals

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What a blast to read this one aloud!! November 8, 2004

By T. Avallone

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Sure it's a good way to get your youngsters to start to think about the possibility that there is more than one "side" to a story, but that would just make this book sound "educational" and where would be the fun in THAT!?

This book is a delightful story that lends itself to ridiculous levels of "hamming" things up when reading it aloud. Poor, poor wolf with the terrible cold that just needs to bake a cake for his dear old granny. Even my oldest child (12 yob) sticks around to hear me read this "one more time" to my younger children.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully done spoof on the 3 Little Pigs! November 3, 1999

By Margaret Fiore

Format:Hardcover

This is an irresistibly silly, great work of comic art!

Yes indeed, there is always another side to a story! A. Wolf explains his side of the classic tale in an almost plausible and sympathetic way. It was all an accident! It wasn't his fault! He didn't mean to sneeze those flimsy little houses down, and now would you have him walk away from a perfectly good ham dinner?

This book is great fun to read, and the art contains amazing little extras that add another layer to the humor. Of course, the audience has to know the old version of the 3 Little Pigs story; not one of the modern, watered-down, nobody-gets-hurt modified versions...

A perennial favorite.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointed October 10, 2010

By Tina Brown

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This was a repurchase for me. Our original copy was destroyed in flooding from hurricane Katrina. I love the story, but was disappointed when I received this book. In the original copy I owned there was a letter to the parole board from A. Wolf in the beginning of the book. That letter set the stage for the story and was 1/2 the humor. This copy did not contain the letter (this was a new book not a used one).