THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner

Wiesner, David.  The Three Pigs.   New York:  Houghton Mifflin. 2001. ISBN 0-439-44517-5

In the best three little pigs version, ever, David Wiesner thinks out of the box, and draws the pigs out of storybook land in his 2002 Caldecott winner, The Three Pigs.  In keeping with an idea he introduces in Tuesday, his 1992 Caldecott that ended with a tease of the pigs taking to the sky, he lets us join the pigs in their own adventure in this fractured retelling of the traditional three pigs story. 

With the cleverest of artistic savvy, Wiesner communicates to his readers when the pigs are in the story and when they escape into real time.  They explore the real world and even gawk at us for a moment!  They explore the surroundings of the world on hoof and by air (page airplane), and roam into a mother goose rhyme.  There they attract the attention of the cat with the fiddle who joins their excursions.  They also roam into a fairy tale and rescue a dragon.   By showing him the way out of his book, the dragon escapes the prince sent to slay him.   The pigs eventually decide to return to their story, but take their new friends with them which alters the story in a most satisfying and entertaining way.

Wiesner draws the storybook worlds with detailed watercolor, pencil and colored pencil drawings.  The illustrations of the three stories that the pigs explore are drawn so individually that they look like they have been drawn by different artists.  The Mother Goose pages are whimsically drawn in pastel colors, and the fairy tale pages are drawn in detailed black and white.  When the pigs are out of the stories and exploring the real world, Wiesner allows lots of white space to communicate freedom from the confines of a book.  He also draws the pigs much more realistically, right down to the bristles on their "chinny chin chin."   

Children's imaginations will soar in discussing what if the pigs had explored this rhyme, or that fairy tale.  What if they met this favorite character or that mean villain?  The possibilities of engagement are limitless.  No huffing and puffing are required to enjoy this favorite tale, but the fun it conjures just might blow you away.