The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas, Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

When it comes time for the three little wolves to go out into the world and build themselves a house, their mother warns them to beware the big bad pig. But the little wolves' increasingly sturdy dwellings are no match for the persistent porker, who has more up his sleeve than huffing and puffing. It takes a chance encounter with a flamingo pushing a wheelbarrow full of flowers to provide a surprising and satisfying solution to the little wolves' housing crisis.

Eugene Trivizas's hilarious text and Helen Oxenbury's enchanting watercolors have made this delightfully skewed version of the traditional tale a contemporary classic.

Publishers Weekly

ISBN 0-689-81528-X. PW's starred review applauded the "laugh-out-loud results" of this talented team's clever interpretation, calling it "among the wittiest fractured fairy tales around." Ages 5-10. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3--A menacing pig is thwarted by three endearing young wolves in this new twist on the porcine favorite. Three cheers for these frisky, frolicking creatures--and for the swine who learns the joy of friendship and beauty. (Dec. 1993)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-``Once upon a time, there were three cuddly little wolves with soft fur and fluffy tails....'' They go out into the world to build a house for themselves only to be menaced by a big bad pig. In a clever switch on the familiar counterparts, these sweet-faced innocents use brick, concrete, and steel constructions, but their nemesis is not called big and bad for nothing. With sledgehammer, pneumatic drill, and dynamite, the pig wrecks each structure. ``Something must be wrong with our building materials,'' the wolves muse. Their final house is build from flowers, insubstantial yet beautiful. It is their lovely scent that causes the pig to change his nasty ways and all live together as friends happily ever after. The text has the repeating situations and phrases from the traditional version. Oxenbury's pastel watercolor illustrations combine the coziness of a nursery tale with tongue-in-cheek humor. They are animated and full of personality. Children familiar with The Three Little Pigs will enjoy the turnabout, the narrow escapes, and the harmonious ending. This may also be used to inspire them to develop their own adaptations of classic tales.-Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY

BookList

This fractured fairy tale has a subtle message, adding some heart to what otherwise might have been just a clever piece of storytelling. As the title tells, this is role-reversal time, with three wolf siblings heading out to find some real estate. These wolves are no dumb bunnies, however. They go right for the solid red brick model. But a big, bad piggy comes along, and when huffing and puffing doesn't work, he knocks down the house with a sledgehammer. Similar fates befall the wolves' next homes, one made of stone, the other of reinforced steel. It's only when the wolves build a house of flowers, and the pig stops to smell the lovely scent, that contentious turns contented, and the now very good pig moves in and becomes a roommate. The concepts that beauty can facilitate change and that tenderness works better than toughness won't be lost on kids. Both the art and the text are full of wit, but it's especially Oxenbury's pictures that appeal, as the cover picture of the wolves graciously eating their lunches, with napkins spread on laps, clearly shows.

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