The Three Pigs

1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wiesner, David. 2001. THE THREE PIGS. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618007016

2.PLOT SUMMARY
This story is about three little pigs that went out to seek their own fortune. All three of them started to build their own houses using different materials, including straw, sticks, and bricks. However, a bad wolf came after them trying to destroy their house and eat them. After the wolf blew the straw house down, the first pig was blown out of the story and into another world. Later, the second pig also entered the other world with the first pig when the wolf huffed and puffed and blew down his house made of sticks. When the wolf went to the third house, the little pig was out of the story with the other two. They all flew on paper airplanes to another imaginary world to take part in two different stories and found happiness in a strange new world. One of the stories they landed in, they saved their new dragon friend. The new friend went home with them and when the wolf tried to blow down the house made of bricks, the dragon stuck his head out of the window and scared the wolf away.

3.CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The picture book is a variant tale of The Three Pigs by David Wiesner based on the framework of the traditional tale, adding more characters and a funny experience for the three little pigs in an imaginary world. When children read this version of the Three Pigs, they will be very surprised and excited to explore the new elements of the story with a different and happy ending. Normally, readers would expect what would happen at the end of the traditional tale due to the familiarity of the story. The story shares features of the traditional tale, such as simple and direct wording, fast-moving action, repetitive patterns and a happy ending. The story started with a traditional tale, then takes an interesting and fun twist. I strongly believe the story is well-designed and fun for children because of the tone of the story, plot, setting, as well as the beautiful, realistic illustrations.

Tone of the story
The tone of the story expresses what the writers’ attitude is toward their subjects and readers (lecture note, 2011). Some writers use the third person narrative to tell the story with a broad and objective view. Some writers prefer to use the first person narrative giving more insight into the characters, expressing their emotions and feelings. The tone of voice would influence how readers feel about the protagonists. The traditional tale of The Three Pigs used the third person point of view to express the story. For instance, there were three pigs that went out into the world to seek their fortune; now the second pig built his house out of sticks on page one and four. Wiesner added the first person point of view to express their insightful feelings and actions through some dialogue, but he did not completely go away from the third person point of view in the story. The story contained both the third and first person point of views together to narrate the story with more insight, feeling, and emotional expression. For instance, when the three pigs were out of the story, the tone became the first person point of view expressing “Let’s explore this place; we got away from that wolf…for good; and I think we’re going to like it here” Through this first person narrative, the story became more alive and interesting.

Plot and Setting
This section will focus on the plot structure, setting, and characters. In the integrated structure, the story was well-designed with each time sequence well-defined. Readers can easily follow each event in the story. The story is based on the traditional tale; therefore, it has similar characteristics of traditional tale, including a fast moving plot, repetitive pattern, good versus evil, and a happy ending. Furthermore, the story still included the main protagonists and had a similar framework of the original story from the beginning to the end. However, the author added more characters and plots in the middle of story which added some funny and amazing experiences with interaction between different characters and the original three little pigs. Contrary to the traditional tale, the bad wolf did not die, but it was punished by his surprise and fear when he saw the giant dragon.

The author switched the setting in the middle of the story since the three pigs were out of the story on page 5. In the beginning, the setting is in the forest with the bad wolf and three little pigs building their houses. Then the setting jumped to the imaginary world with two different story settings, including a happy animal world; a friendly dragon and princes. Between the first traditional setting and the two different story settings, there is a transitional setting when the pigs are traveling via paper airplanes to their new imaginary worlds. At the end of the story, the setting shifted back to the original setting with the same protagonists and the new character, the friendly dragon.

Through the characters, Wiesner still kept the three pigs as the main protagonists and the wolf as the antagonist symbolizing the evil, bad character in the story. In the middle of the story, the author created more and more silent and flat characters to extend the complex setting and plots, such as the cow, the little dog, the dish, the spoon, and the prince. Through the involvement of the other main protagonist, the dragon, the story broadened the story theme and made it different and unique from other story.

Illustrations
The author was also the illustrator of the book and he used watercolors, colored inks, pencils, as well as color pencils to express the characters and settings. The illustrations helped to convey the feelings and emotions of the characters, such as on page 2, when the bad wolf approached the first pig’s house, the first pig was hiding inside of the house with alarmed eyes and shaking hair. Here Wiesner used pencil drawings to emphasize the feelings and expressions in contrast with the big mouth of the bad wolf. The illustrator also used different drawing styles to distinguish the three pigs in the original story and the imaginary world. Young readers will be able to see the obvious differences between the original three pigs from the three pigs in the different settings. Moreover, I was so surprised when I turned to mostly blank pages only showing the paper airplane in flight from page 12 to 17. My first thought was whether or not the story ended in an unexpected way or what would actually happen on the next page. This style design raised my curiosity and kept my interest to explore and read the story further. I really enjoyed looking at all of the different art through these uncertain and unexpected explorations. The other advantage of the illustration design is how the words appeared to explode at the moment in which the wolf saw the dragon on page 36. These dancing words coincided with the happiness expressed by the three main characters showing their complete joy at the end of the story.

In summary, the story gave me a good example of how to understand what variant tales are and how authors develop them to compare to the traditional tales. The variant tale of the Three Pigs introduces new characters who interact with the three protagonists. It also used different point of views to enrich the story structure. I believe that the interaction dialogue made the story more active and fun. I appreciate the art throughout the book; however, I was a little confused when I first read the story because of the complex setting and tone. It could be a pro and con debate because English is not my first language. I was confused on page 3 that the wolf ate the pig up and I wondered whether the wolf ate it or not. Later on, I figured out on page 5 that the wolf did not eat the second pig because of his confused expression in wondering, as I had done earlier, just what happened to the pigs. This book gave me a complete new experience to look at the picture book and compare it to the traditional tale. I really enjoyed reading and looking at the outstanding art in the book.

4.REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
David Wiesner was the Caldecott Medal Winner and the Caldecott Honor Winners for the book. The book was the Winner of the 2002 Caldecott Medal.

On Best-Childrens-books.com, , Steve Barancik (2011) indicated that Wiesner’s The Three Pigs opened him up to a broader way of looking at art and literature, as well as, to explore and go everywhere based on the traditional tale.
On the Powell’s Books.com, Publishers Weekly (2011) reviewed that the book used white space and perspective to evoke a feeling that the characters could navigate with unlimited possibilities.

5. CONNECTIONS
I found the other variant tales of The Three Pigs entitled, Three Little Pigs and the Fox by William Hooks (1972). The story changed the gender of the third pig and added three recommendations from their mother before they went out to seek their fortune.
Sierra, Judy. 2010. Tell the truth, B.B. Wolf. New York : Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0375956204

The other connection book I have found is a book entitled, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. This version of book was opposite from most of other versions based on the wolf’s perspective expressing the story.
Scieszka, Jon, 1999. The true story of the three little Pigs. New York : Viking. ISBN: 0670888443

Reference
Powell’s Books, assessed Feb 20, 2011, http://www.powells.com/biblio/0618007016
Best-Childrens-books. Com., accessed Feb 20, 2011, http://www.best-childrens-books.com/the-three-pigs.html

The article is created on Feb. 21, 2011