Book Review: The True Story of The Three Little Pigs

:: The True Story of Three Little Pigs

“So I walked down the street to ask my neighbour for a cup of sugar.

Now, this neighbour was a pig.

And he wasn’t too bright, either.

He built his whole house out of straw.

Can you believe it? I mean who in his right mind would build a house out of straw?”

The title of this book and the cover design stood out immediately for Dumpling and I when we first saw it. Curious, we both made a dash for it and started flipping through immediately.

Imaginative, hilarious and clever are three words which I would use for this title. All of us know the story of the classic tale ‘Three Little Pigs’ but how many have thought of it from the big bad wolf’s perspective?

Well, this is the ‘other’ side of the story, his story. The untold story of a badly misunderstood wolf who was at the wrong place at the wrong time with a bad cold!   

The story is told by Mr. Alexander T (Al for short) and started from what was supposedly to be a simple task of borrowing a cup of sugar for a birthday cake for his Grandma. This of course became an adventure (or 3!) along the way. This story is a rhyming story peppered with doses of humor and pun.

Now, the comic styled illustrations are wonderfully quirky too. And no wonder! They are illustrated by award winning (Caldecott Honor) artist Lane Smith and the book also won New York Times Best Illustrated book in 1989. 

(Can you spot the additional ‘ingredients’ in the cheeseburger?)

Before the end of the story, I was giggling as much as Dumpling and we re-read it once more. The twists to the classic tale are imaginative and hilarious. We both fell in love with Al as it is just so hard to view him as the 'villain'. After all, how can we blame Al? As he so eloquently puts it “It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw” and so he ate the pig up.

Though this is recommended for children of 5 - 8 years old, it is a truly delightful read and I certainly would recommend it for older kids (and adults too!) 

Author:  Jon-Scieszka

Illustrator: Lane Smith

I received this title from My Imagination Kingdom in order to do a review on and give my opinion of it. Just for Beanie N Us readers, I am pleased to share that My Imagination Kingdom is offering a 15% discount for all its titles. 

Just key in BNUS15 upon checking out (billing and shipping info page)! 
Code is valid till 17 July 2013

I was also invited guest post at My Imagination Kingdom to share my experiences and tips on read aloud and literacy. Hop on over to find out more!