Rating: 
(71 reviews)
Author: David Wiesner
Publisher: Clarion Books
Product Description
This picture book begins placidly (and familiarly) enough, with three pigs collecting materials and going off to build houses of straw, sticks, and bricks. But the wolf”s huffing and puffing blows the first pig right out of the story . . . and into the realm of pure imagination. The transition signals the start of a freewheeling adventure with characteristic David Wiesner effects—cinematic flow, astonishing shifts of perspective, and sly humor, as well as episodes of flight. Satisfying both as a story and as an exploration of the nature of story, The Three Pigs takes visual narrative to a new level. Dialogue balloons, text excerpts, and a wide variety of illustration styles guide the reader through a dazzling fantasy universe to the surprising and happy ending. Fans of Tuesday”s frogs and Sector 7″s clouds will be captivated by old friends—the Three Pigs of nursery fame and their companions—in a new guise. Amazon.com Review
Once upon a time three pigs built three houses, out of straw, sticks, and bricks. Along came a wolf, who huffed and puffed… So, you think you know the rest? Think again. With David Wiesner at the helm, it’s never safe to assume too much. When the wolf approaches the first house, for example, and blows it in, he somehow manages to blow the pig right out of the story frame. The text continues on schedule–”…and ate the pig up”–but the perplexed expression on the wolf’s face as he looks in vain for his ham dinner is priceless. One by one, the pigs exit the fairy tale’s border and set off on an adventure of their own. Folding a page of their own story into a paper airplane, the pigs fly off to visit other storybooks, rescuing about-to-be-slain dragons and luring the cat and the fiddle out of their nursery rhyme.
Wiesner, Caldecott Medal recipient for Tuesday, and Caldecott Honor winner for both Sector 7 and Free Fall, prefers not to wait around until pigs fly. He gives them wings (or paper airplanes) and sets them on their way! In his latest flight of fancy, Wiesner uses shifting illustration styles and fonts to startle complacent readers into an imaginary world even as they ponder the conventional structure of story. His trademark crafty humor and skewed perspectives will tickle readers pink (even the nonporcine variety)! (Ages 4 and older) –Emilie Coulter
5 Comments
I read books to children for a living and love to do so. I road test many books and judge a book by the response I get from my students. Four and five year olds love the Three Little Pigs, Pig, Pigger, Piggest, The Fourth Little Pig, and The Three LIttle Wolves. They don’t take to this one. It confuses them and the response is a group blank stare and telepathic “huh?” I have tried it a few times and am now going to donate it.
My 7 year old did not like this book. He thought the story line was awful, and not appealing to kids. He did not like the illustrations. And he did not understand the plot of the story. This book was one of the worst books we have read. Save your money.
What an unusual book! This book is a wonderful way to engage children who think they are too old to be read to, and WAY too old for story books — they already know the Three Pigs story, right? That’s what THEY think. The book tells the story as usual, until the Big Bad Wolf blows the first pig right off the page, and the pigs go and explore the outside world. They wander through other story books and rescue other creatures, then come back to their own story to confront the wolf.
Extraordinary. The illustrations are imaginative and magical.
This book will not do for most three-year-old children, who want to hear the same story again and again — it is for older children who will get the joke.
Like the best children’s literature, “Wolf! Wolf!” is enjoyable for both kids and adults. This is a spectacular kids’ book that both my 4 year old and 8 year old get a huge kick out of. David Wiesner is a great illustrator and storyteller who does something that is comparatively rare in children’s books (or adults’) — he plays with the very act of storytelling. This is one of his best, I think, and he is consistently outstanding. “Wolf! Wolf!” really plays with storytelling and the very idea of a book which kids _will_ get and adults will appreciate also. I’ve been a graphic designer for many years, and this book is worthy of inclusion in a course on design.
We like to see the bad guy get his comeuppance, to see that utterly befuddled look on the villain’s face when outsmarted by a righteous adversary. We’ve seen it happen in movies, in television shows, in books, and maybe even in real life. Kids in particular delight in this literary contrivance, particularly when paired with elements of surprise, the unexpected and the unconventional. In David Weisner’s pigture book, “The Three Pigs”, (not Little pigs) the big bad wolf is again outsmarted by three pigs, but in ways both unexpected and marvelous.
This book brims with the unexpected, the uncommon, the unconventional. The pigs wander in and out of dimensions and story pages on the wings of a wondrous paper airplane or on the hoof. As they move from page to page, from world to world, story to story, their beings transform, morph to blend in with the page’s theme and style. The effect is most striking when they are halfway between dimensions, their body halves reflecting the tone and style of each.
Most sites suggest this book for ages 4-8. I shared this book with an extremely bright third grader who could appreciate the creativity of the author. I’m not sure most four-year-olds could appreciate such creative wizardry as well. With only 48 sentences, this picture driven book can be “read” and understood by those who can’t decipher all the words. And there are a words in here that will challenge readers in this age group like: fortune, dragon, treasure, determined, slay, guard, steed, mountaintop, diddle, castle.
I like:
The expression on the wolf’s face baffled by the disappearing pigs is comical.
The juxtaposition of coloring book detailed characters and those drawn with photographic detail is striking
The author’s creative use of white space on some pages is admirable and notable.
The realistic, surrealistic, Dali-esque pictures of the flying fish dazzle the reader.
I especially enjoyed Weisner’s use of cascading letters, words crumbling into individual letters floating on the page and drifting to the bottom like so many autumn leaves
“The Three Pigs” is an exploration of an author’s creative possibilities. The blending and blurring of dimension and place, the morphing of appearance and form, the transformation of an age old classic plot are all refreshing and creative conceits. Yet this buddy tale of animals on a quest picking up new friends on the way has been done before as have the author’s previously mentioned inspired devices, though maybe not blended so well and in such a fashion.
This is an excellent book, a magical book, with elements that can interest and entertain a wide age span of readers. But I see it as more of a fun parlor trick by your Uncle Benny than an onstage David Copperfield extravaganza.