Thursday, August 17, 2017

Board book: The Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs. Michael Robertson, illustrator. 2017. Scholastic. 7 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. When they were all grown up, they went off to build their own houses. "Beware of the Big Bad Wolf," Mama Pig warned as she kissed her piggies good-bye.

Premise/plot: What you should know about this book: a) it's a board book; b) it's in a novelty shape with a handle; c) there are FOUR finger puppets and a built-in stage for story retelling; d) the story is THE THREE LITTLE PIGS; e) It is not the traditional story.

My thoughts: I enjoy the story The Three Little Pigs. In fact, in college I even did an annotated bibliography of picture book adaptations. I called it a pigliography. This retelling is not traditional in several ways. No pigs are actually eaten. All three pigs are alive and doing well at the end of the story. That in and of itself doesn't make this one all that different from many retellings. But in most retellings, the wolf is punished in one way or another for trying to eat the three little pigs. Justice is served up somehow, someway. That isn't the case in this one: the three little pigs willingly OPEN up the door and extend FRIENDSHIP. The book ends with these words: "The wolf stood up and smiled with a grinny-grin-grin! The End....or is it?

I like that children (or adults) can retell the story using the built-in theatre and the finger puppets. It can be retold in any way, one doesn't have to stick to the version used in the book. The finger puppets themselves are adorable.

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

1 comment:

Suko said...

Terrific review, Becky! Your pigliography cracked me up! I like the idea of this retelling and the finger puppets. :)