The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!
Jon Scieszka

Scieszka, Jon. Illustrator Lane Smith. 1989. The true story of the 3 little pigs! New York: Viking Penguin.

Huff, puff, and blow the house down. Most people can give the general premise of the story of the 3 little pigs: 3 pigs, houses of straw, sticks, and bricks, wolf blows down straw and sticks, bricks stay up, wolf goes down chimney, third pigs eats wolf soup for supper. Jon Scieszka decided to tell the wolf’s side in this very creative folk beast tale, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.

The premise of this fractured fairy tells the story of the 3 little pigs from the perspective of the wolf, the big bad wolf. The plot is simple and familiar. By reading a story told from the side of the typical bad character, the reader is forced to rethink everything they think they knew about the story. Faced with the realization that every story has two sides the reader can find themselves rooting for a “new” character.

The traditional theme of the folktale is good versus bad. The theme in this tale is almost the opposite, the pigs, who are the traditional good characters are found out to be bad and vice versa for the wolf. Scieszka chooses to tell the tale in first person through the eyes of the wolf, almost autobiographical. He uses thoughts and opinions that only the wolf would know. By choosing this type of style the reader is privy to information that otherwise would be unknown.

The illustrations of this picture book are reminiscent of old newspaper type. Done in sepias and browns the illustrations lead the reader’s eyes to the character versus what is going on around them. The focus is always on the wolf and all other characters are background, never to be seen. The tale is truly the wolf’s as told through the illustrations. If the words were never written and the illustrations told the story, it would be very easy to infer the storyline and what implications they have.

Publishers Weekly, 03/04/1996
"Designed with uncommon flair," said PW, this "gaily newfangled version of the classic tale" takes sides with the villain. "Imaginative watercolors eschew realism, further updating the tale." This review from the database, Book Index with Reviews, speaks to the creative ingenuity that Scieszka takes with his version (told to him by Alexander T. Wolf) of the story of the 3 little pigs.

One of the reasons this book is a must read for children is that it has a hidden moral. There are always two sides to a story, and to understand something it should be looked at from both sides. A good lesson for children and adults alike.