The Three Pigs by David Weisner

 The Three Pigs

Bibliography

Weisner, David. 2001. The Three Pigs.  New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 9780618007011

Plot Summary

The story begins in the traditional Three Little Pigs format with the wolf trying to blow down the first pig’s straw house, but instead, the wolf blows the pig out of the story.  The same thing happens to the second pig when the wolf tries to blow his house down, so they invite the 3^rd pig with the brick house to join them in between the pages.  The pigs use the pages to build a paper airplane, and they fly around in the space between books until they crash land.  They first run through "Hey Diddle Diddle", where the cat sneaks out of the story behind the pigs, then they enter a tale of a dragon guarding a golden rose.   The pigs rescue the dragon from the knight by inviting him to escape the pages of the book with them.   They search the stories until they decide to go home and return to the 3^rd pigs brick house.  They climb back into the story, and they rearrange the words so that they dragon scares away the wolf, and the three pigs, cat, and dragon live happily ever after in the brick house.

Critical Analysis

The artwork tells much of the story in this book.  The style of drawing changes every time the pigs enter a different story.  In the blank space the pigs have more detail, showing individual hairs on their bodies, but in their original story, they had a more simple texture.  In “Hey Diddle Diddle” the artwork is very simplified and child-like.  In the dragon story, the illustrations are black and white with calligraphy-like lines to reflect the antiquity of the tale.  During the airplane ride, the white, blank pages show the space that they are flying through.  Another clever detail in the drawings is that the cat that sneaks out of the story lurks behind the pages until the pigs notice him. 

In terms of the story, Weisner changes a traditional tale to demonstrate the power of friendship and helping others, and this is something that is not present in the original story.  He completely changes the middle of the three little pigs, but the tale still ends with the pigs in the brick house.

Review Excerpts

This book won the 2002 Caldecott Award.

Publishers Weekly, 02/26/2001

"Wiesner's brilliant use of white space and perspective (as the pigs fly to the upper right-hand corner of a spread on their makeshift plane, or as one pig's snout dominates a full page) evokes a feeling that the characters can navigate endless possibilities, and that the range of story itself is limitless."

School Library Journal, 04/01/2001

"Children will delight in the changing perspectives, the effect of the wolf's folded-paper body, and the whole notion of the interrupted narrative. Wiesner's luxurious use of white space with the textured pigs zooming in and out of view is fresh and funny."

Connections
Readers who enjoyed this clever re-interpretation of a classic tale may also enjoy Three Blind Mice Team up with the Three Little Pigs by Paul Harrison, ISBN 9781410983015 or Pignocchio by Alicia Rodriguez ISBN 9781427151612.