Customer Reviews

The three pigs

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

In the blurb about the author, we are reminded of the wonderful ending to one of Wiesner's earlier books, "Tuesday," in which pigs fly (since frogs fly, too). Now the pigs get their own book and we can all be grateful for this new adventure.

At first, this book appears to be a beautifully illustrated retelling of the fairy tale classic, "The Three Little Pigs." But when the wolf blows one of the pigs out of the story, we quickly join the pigs on an unusual journey in which pigs fly, a cow jumps over the moon, and a dragon becomes a pig's best friend. The story is not predictable and the clever illustrations will require many rereadings to catch all of their nuances.

Wiesner's humor and gorgeous art will entertain children and any adult lucky enough to join in on the fun. This book will also make a great companion to another fractured fairy tale, Jon Scieszka's "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs."

Everyone knows the story of The Three Pigs. They build their houses of straw and wood and brick. The big bad wolf comes and huffs and puffs and... David Wiesner has taken this old tale and given it a clever and very inventive twist. Instead of being eaten, the pigs escape, take their book apart to confuse and keep the wolf away, build a paper airplane and fly off on a fairy tale adventure of their own. Mr Wiesner keeps his humorous text spare and simple and let's his marvelous artwork tell the story. Youngster's imaginations will soar as they examine the colorful, expressive and detailed illustrations. Perfect for children 4-8, The Three Pigs tells an old familiar story in a new, creative and innovative way and is a MUST for all home libraries.

Wow! This is one great book both for children and adults. The story is not The Three Little Pigs that we all know so well, but a postmodern version called The Three Pigs that expands laterally and not chronologically. The Three Little Pigs is a traditional modern tale whose moral is to postpone pleasure and protect yourself. The characters are flat, the story predictable, and, once you know it, dull. Here, in the postmodern version, the characters are multidimentional and the story not predictable. In fact, the pigs fall out of the text, complain about being eaten by the wolf, go on a paper airplane ride, meet up with the cat in the fiddle and a dragon, cutting across many different levels of culture. Adults may be puzzled, but the kids catch on right away and love it. Encouraged by the power of imagination, the kids start to make up their own versions. Parents, fear not. The pigs in David Wiesner's award winning version - all three of them - end up back at home in the brick house safe from the wolf and in famous company (dragon and cat), living happily ever after together.

David Wiesner comes from the Chris Van Allsburg school of writing for children. Like Van Allsburg, his books are highly creative and imaginative, the story is absorbing and entertaining, and, quite apart from all that, the illustrations are in a class of their own-stark and startling yet warm and accessible.

The Three Little pigs starts out as the classic story but then diverts down a very different, utterly delightful path before returning-sort of-to the traditional ending. The work, taken as a whole, is captivating and engrossing for child and adult alike. And, finally, like all great children's fiction, this is the sort of book one does not tire of-you are always ready to dive in yet once again with as great a sense of anticipation as when you tried it the first time.

I consider Van Allsburg's Polar Express and Jumanji to be among the best children's books ever produced. This book is in both that mold and of that class of effort.

A truly awesome book the whole family will enjoy for years to come.

I always thought of David Wiesner as the Magritte of the children's picture book world. Now, having read his delightful, "The Three Pigs", I see that he's far more innovative than I'd suspected. If this book had been proposed to a book editor, say, twenty years ago it probably would have been discarded as an idea that was "too sophisticated" for schoolchildren. I mean, prior to "The Three Pigs" what other book has ever dared to challenge the notion of the fourth wall? Mr. Wiesner's delightfully post-modern picture book is possibly one of the most intelligent stories you may ever read to your kids. And best of all, they'll love it. Deeply.

I think we're all familiar with the story of the three little pigs. Three pigs build houses of their own. The first is made of straw, the second of sticks, and the third of bricks. Then a big bad wolf comes along and blows the first house down. And that's when things start to get interesting. Instead of eating the pig (as the text instructs) the wolf is baffled to find the pig gone. In fact, Pig #1 has inadvertently been blown into the white margins of his own story. Able now to travel freely around the static pictures of his tale, Pig #1 has his two brothers join him in the margins. They construct one of the story's pictures into a paper airplane and fly it about. They walk in and out of other stories, making new friends along the way. Finally, it's time to return home and the pigs know the perfect way to make their tale have a happy ending.

First of all, this is a great way to get kids to question the very basic construction of all stories. If these pigs can escape their own fate, why not characters in other picture books as well? Wiesner has cleverly eschewed the idea of having the pigs appearing the same at all times. When the pigs are in their story they're just your average illustrated pigs. When they get blown into the margins, however, they become the hyper-realistic pigs you see on the cover of the book. Then, depending on what the illustration style of any given picture is, they appear as that kind of drawing when they enter it. For example, a cutesy nursery rhyme makes the pigs appear as adorable roly-poly piggies (a fate they don't particularly take to). It's fascinating to watch Wiesner make the best possible use of space in this book, especially when you see how beautifully he utilizes pure white backgrounds. Matrix eat your heart out.

Another advantage to reading this delightful book are Wiesner's in-jokes and small details. If you're familiar with his other Caldecott medal winner, "Tuesday", then you know that it's about flying frogs. It should comes as a special delight then when the pigs oh-so casually pass a different book in which fish are flying in a manner mighty similar to the aforementioned story. Other details in this book include the sly cat with a fiddle who follows the pigs out of his own tale, or the tiny words in a storybook about a knight and his various quests. There's always something new in "The Three Pigs" to enjoy and marvel at when you read through the book. That's partly why it's so good.

There are few contemporary illustrator/authors living today that can claim to have more than one Caldecott medal under their belt. David Wiesner is one of the few. And "The Three Pigs" is my favorite Caldecott medal winner, bar none, of the last ten years. Even if you couldn't care less if your kids are familiar with books that challenge the paradigm of reading itself, you've gotta admit that this is a great story. A real tour de force. It's witty and appealing to kids and everything a Caldecott medal winner should be. A beautiful wonderful book.

A new look at an old story. "The Three Pigs" by David Wiesner is wonderful!

The charm and ingenuity of the pigs in the original story is revisited, but in a way unexpected by any reader. This isn't for the preschooler so much as it is for the second grader who thinks he's read it all. The joy of the story, is, in part, noting how it varies from the story we all remember. For a reader hearing it for the first time, it might not connect as well.

One fun lesson you could do with your class or child is to compare the two stories. How are they different? How are they the same?

I full recommend "The Three Pigs."

Anthony Trendl

I've read this book to my three nieces several times and they love it. They range in age from two to four and seem to especially love making up their own words to the textless pages. It is a great imagination and conversation sparker and the illustrations are a lot of fun for all of us to look at - different styles and feels to the different stages of the adventure.

David Wiesner's, clever twist on "The Three Little Pigs," takes a story that we all know, and had the pigs escape from the wolf and out of the story itself. The pigs fly off on a paper airplane stopping periodically at other stories. While they are stopping at other stories, they begin to rescue more and more characters along the way.

The author and artist, David Wiesner, used watercolor, gouache, colored inks, pencil and colored pencil on Fabriano hot press paper in order to capture the illustrations in his book, "The Three Pigs." I enjoy the illustrator's use of two kinds of artistic styles within one picture. For example, on the third page, Wiesner illustrates the pig in the fairytale as more of a cartoon style. Whereas, when the pig is exiting the fairytale, the illustrator makes the pig more realistic by using colored pencils. I think by using the different styles within the picture, it allows the reader to really understand and visualize the pig falling out of the fairytale. This technique is used throughout the book, when a character is leaving or entering a fairytale. The technique is used with different variations on certain pages. In the scene with the, "Cat and the Fiddle," the pigs turn into very cartoon-like characters, and in the tale about the dragon, the pigs turn into black and white pen and ink drawings.
Another technique that I really appreciated in this book was the pages within a page. Wiesner used the play on fairytale pages to illustrate the pigs in the, "real world."
Although, this book uses wonderful and creative illustrations, I think it would be a difficult concept for small children to grasp. Some small children barely have the concept of the original, "Three Little Pigs," let alone a big twist such as this one, especially with the addition of other fairytales. However, I do think that this book would be a good choice for slightly older readers such as kids aged 9-12. They will be able to grasp the concept and follow the storyline a little bit better than their younger counterparts.

I bought this book to read to a group of 5-year-olds. However, I think it is too sophistocated for them. One must understand the basic story of the Three Little Pigs and several other nursery rhymes follow the twists of circumstances that lets all three pigs escape uneaten.
The illustrations show the wolf blowing the first little pig out of the story, the pages falling apart and folding into a paper plane on which the 3 pigs fly into Hey Diddle Diddle, meet a fire-breathing dragon, and revise the original story's ending. Very, very creative and funny!!! I can't wait to read it to an older group of boys and girls.

You never know what to expect from David Wiesner and he delivers again with "The Three Pigs". This is one of my all-time favorite picture books, just for the sheer cleverness of taking a well-known tale and twisting it. From an artistic point-of-view it is absolutely brilliant! I love how the pigs change their appearance as they travel through the story (by paper airplane fashioned from a torn out page). There is so much attention to detail, kids will want to look through it again and again. To those people who don't understand how the book won awards - The Caldecott Medal is given to the most distinguished PICTURE book. "A picture is worth a thousand words."