The Three Pigs

Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. NY: Clarion.

About the Book

The Three Pigs is not your traditional story. The pigs leave the pages in their book and enter a dimension between story book pages. They go on an adventure through the other stories. At one point they take the page of their story where the wolf is trying to get into the brick house. They fold it up like a paper airplane and fly around. They encounter a story with a dragon and they liberate the dragon. In the end they return to their book with a few extra characters.

Visual Elements of Art Evaluation

Texture – The book begins in 2-dimensional coloring, like a traditional picture book. As the book continues the pigs fall out of the story book into this other plane. The pigs and other characters that fall out of the story book pages take on a 3-dimension appearance. The shadowing and use of color and lines help to give this 3-D feel to the book. I especially love the page where they fold the story book page with the wolf up like a paper airplane and go flying.

Literature Evaluative Criteria

Setting – The setting is the story books and the world of story creation. The beginning you know you are in the story of the three little pigs. Then the first pig is blown out of the book. He discovers this parallel place. Without the caption bars and the pictures the reader could be very confused as to where and when this story is happening. It was definitely a nice twist on the traditional fairy tale/nursery rhyme.