The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Book Title: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

Author: Jon Scieszka

Illustrator: Lane Smith

    

           This is the story of a misunderstood wolf, who had the misfortune of being at the wrong place, at the wrong time…or that’s what he would have us believe. Most children are familiar with the traditional three little pig’s story, but perhaps they have never thought to look at the situation from the wolf’s perspective. Spoofing the conventional fairy tale, author Jon Scieszka, recounts the wolf’s side of the story while illustrator Lane Smith breathes it to life using shadowy watercolors. shifty

Unjustly defamed by the sensationalism-stalking media, Scieszka recounts in first-person narrative style the events surrounding the disappearance of the pigs. 

          Smith’s dark tones and enigmatic illustrations deepen the effect of unfolding drama and heighten the sense that perhaps the wolf, at times depicted with seemingly boneless, slippery attributes, is not being entirely forthcoming in his tale.

           Alexander Wolf would have the reader believe he was but innocently attempting to borrow a cup of sugar from his neighbors, the pigs, when an unfortunate sneeze (after all, he had a terrible cold) crumpled the poorly built homes. What was the wolf to do with the ham dinners (a.k.a. deceased little pigs) left among the rubble of straw and sticks? “Think of it as a cheeseburger just lying there,” he says. Needless to say, he had a first, then a second helping. When the third pig insulted his grandmother, Wolf "got a little crazy." By the time authorities arrived at the third little pig’s home, Wolf was upset and the reporters misinterpreted events into the story we know today.

            The moral of the story that every event has more than one perspective, can be made with students by asking them to retell a traditional story from the antagonists perspective. For example, how would Hansel and Gretel be depicted by the witch who lived in the gingerbread house? Students can be asked to make up different stories and then act them out for the group. Carolyn Phelan of the American Library Association suggests that the book "encourages kids to leap beyond the familiar, to think critically about conventional stories and illustration, and perhaps to flex their imaginations and create wonderfully subversive versions of their own stories" ("True Story of the Three Little Pigs" 2013).

            This story was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 School Library Journal Poll, as well as an ALA Notable Book. 

References

Amazon.com, "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs." Last modified 2013. Accessed September 22, 2013. http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Three-Little-Pigs/dp/product-description/0140544518/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books.


Scieszka, Jon. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Ill. by Lane Smith. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1989. ISBN-10: 0140544518