The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

 The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

Bibliography

Trivizas, Eugene. 1993. THE THREE LITTLE WOLVES AND THE BIG BAD PIG. Ill. by Helen                Oxenbury. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 9780689815287

Plot Summary

Trivizas's twist on the age old tale has the three little wolves leaving home to build a place of their own. Unlike in the original story, the wolves start out with building a brick house which the big bad pig, after the usual huffs and puffs, destroys with a sledgehammer. The wolves go bigger with concrete and iron and armor plates, but the pig just uses a jackhammer and dynamite to demolish the houses. The wolves then use a surprising material, flowers, which smell so good and refreshing that smelling them convinces the big bad pig to turn into a big good pig. The wolves and the pig play together and live happily ever after.

Critical Analysis

Trivizas's laugh-out-loud Three Little Pigs retelling, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, turns the original story upside down. Filled with endless humor and crazy antics by the villain, the story ends differently from the original, with a message of friendship and how it is never too late to turn good. This tale is one for fans of the original that would love to see the story told through a fresh and slightly different lenses. 

Oxenbury's watercolors bring the story to life and give a soft look to the wolves, who are usually the bad guys in fables like this, and a grizzled, mean look to the pig. Her art gives the setting, especially the flower house a comforting feel. 

Trivizas and Oxenbury have worked together to create a delightful and comical retelling to a well-known tale that should be read by Three Little Pigs fans, young and old.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal Best Book Award

Horn Book Guide: "Sophisticated readers will appreciate the humor in the details and in the unexpected happy ending."

Publisher's Weekly: "Trivizas laces the text with funny, clever touches, from an ensemble of animals who obligingly donate whatever building materials the wolves require... Oxenbury's watercolors capture the story's broad humor and add a wealth of supplementary details, with exquisite renderings of the wolves' comic temerity and the pig's bellicose stances. Among the wittiest fractured fairytales around."

Connections

More Three Little Pig retellings: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

                                                     The Three Ninja Pigs by Rosen Schwartz

                                                     The Three Pigs by David Wiesner 

Comparison Activity: Use a Venn Diagram to compare the original Three Little Pigs story to this retelling

More illustrated by Helen Oxenbury: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

                                                            We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

                                                            Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell