Picture Book Reflection 1

Scieszka, J. The true story of the 3 little pigs. By A. Wolf. (1989) New York. Viking Penguin

We have all read and/or heard the story of The Three Little Pigs and always leave with feelings of sorrow for the pigs and hostility for the Big Bad Wolf. The problem is that many of us never thought of the life-long rule of the fact that there is two-sides to every story. In Scieszka book, we get the story of that fateful day involving the 3 little pigs and Big Bad wolf from the point-of-view of the Big Bad Wolf himself. Give it a read and see Mr. Alexander T. Wolf, or Al, can create a whole new perception for you and the childhood favorite.

The story is an immediate success because of the fame of the original story, but Scieszka does a wonderful job using the literary elements of a picture book to re-create the story. The illustrations, done by Lane Smith, are used to create a picture storybook and tell the story just as much as the text. Scieska and Smith do a wonderful job of using the doublespread book design to help the book flow from page to page. The larger size of the pictures and book itself makes it an excellent read aloud in an elementary classroom. (I actually read it to my 5th grade class today!) Finally, the illustrations also do a wonderful job of creating a visual picture of what our characters look like since the author never provides the reader with a description.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! By A. Wolf, is an excellent read aloud and could be used very effectively with several different literary skills. For example, you could compare and contrast Scieszka's story with that of the original version or create a cause and effect chart using the events of the story. You could even do a fun activity like having the students debate on which story they think is true!

Trust me, after reading this delightful book, even your feelings of the "Big Bad Wolf" may have been altered.