The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

The Three Pigs. Written and illustrated by David Wiesner. 2001. ISBN: 0-618-00701-6. Winner of the Caldecott Medal. Fantasy. Ages 5+.

In this book, the three little pigs story starts out as usual. But when the wold blows the house of straw down, he also blows the first little pig right out of the story board, which happens to save his life. The first pig helps the second pig escape and the third pig escape and they wander around in the world of storyboards.

They come to a nursery rhyme book, and quickly realize they do not want to be there! As they leave the nursery rhyme book the cat and the fiddle follow them. They come to a medieval book and help the dragon escape from the knight that is about to slay him. They all soon realize they would like to go home, and the dragon and the cat come back to the brick house where they all lived happily ever after!

This is a funny take on the original story. It is letting the pigs call the shots. The pictures are really an essential part of the story as they help to tell the story and are fun to watch morph. The art in the book is watercolor and pen, and each page is really beautiful to look at.

For an activity with this story it would be fun to have children (who may be older) create a new story of a classic children's tale. They could also combine different tales into a new one. It would be really interesting to see what each child came up with. They could also work in groups, as more imaginative ideas tend to emerge as children converse with one another.