Plot Summary
This fractured fairy tale describes the story from the perspective of the very nice and conscientious big friendly wolf. The wolf has been misrepresented all of these years. It was the three pigs who threatened to huff and puff...all because they were a bunch of spoiled little porkers. The three pigs were so bad in fact, their own mother kicked them out of the house! Forced to make it on their own, the unskilled and lazy pigs each set out to construct a house. The first dastardly pig constructed a very unsteady house made of straw. The kindly wolf, who was a builder by trade, felt sorry for the pig and offered his assistance. The pig rudely yelled at the wolf to leave before he KICKED HIM OUT! Sadly, the caring wolf left and came upon the second atrocious pig's house made of twigs. Again, the benevolent wolf offered his building expertise. His kind gesture was rebuffed by the obnoxious pig who threatened to THROW HIM RIGHT OUT! The last of the three abominable pigs had not constructed a house at all, instead he had taken over the chicken's coop. He rashly refused the sweet wolf's offer of a helping paw as well. In the end, the three horrible pigs realized their error in judgment and the wolf, kind-hearted as he was, cooked them a big pot of soup, gave them a place to stay and, over time, taught them how to become builders themselves!
Critical Analysis
Liz Pichon gives a humorous twist to the tale of the three little pigs. She turns the tables, crafting a story around the antagonistic pigs and the hero wolf. The author is repetitive in her description of the pigs as being "horrid", as if to remind her audience that the pigs are by no means the good guys in this story! Her use of varying sizes of text emphasizes the ebb-and-flow of emotion in each scene. The attention to detail in the illustrations give the readers clues to the lazy ineptness of the pigs. One pig is covered in food or paint in half of the illustrations. It was thought the book was soiled because the front cover is illustrated so well in this regard. The reader sees that another pig can't even put his shoes on the right feet, much less construct a hardy structure! The third pig, embodies the epitome of laziness as the illustration shows the chicken coop cracking as he wedges himself inside the too-small shelter. By drawing the wolf in bibbed coveralls, a hard hat, a tool belt, and carrying a tool box, the illustrator conveys to the reader that he is an industrious professional which contrasts sharply with the good-for-nothing slothful pigs. The colors throughout the book are bright and cheerful. The illustrations don't show much in the line of background scenery, but the focus of the pages are so mesmerizing that the reader may not even recognize this fact. Pichon conveys the message that those who are idle will wind up with nothing. Good things will follow those who learn how to become productive in life.
Review Excerpts
"The full-color cartoon illustrations capture the pigs' bad behavior and comeuppance with a goofy exuberance. The font size shrinks and enlarges to mirror the action and the text works as a fun read-aloud as well as a read-alone."—Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha Public Library, WI School Library Journal, A Reed Business Information Publication
"Bright, bold drawings and a varied graphic layout playfully complement the story. Pichon particularly excels at creating zany facial expressions for her motley menagerie. Several twists on "The Three Little Pigs" are currently in print, but even in this crowded field, The Three Horrid Little Pigs will hold its own." -- Deborah Steinig, Children's Literature
Other Books by Liz Pichon
Penguins
My Big Brother, Boris
Bored Bill
Twilight Verse, Moonlight Rhymes (Illustrator)
Spinderella (Illustrator)
Santa's Reindeer (Illustrator)
Visit her website for more information: http://www.lizpichon.co.uk/
Book Connections
Mowgli's Brothers by Rudyard Kipling
Eye of the Wolf by Daniel Pennac
There are No Scary Wolves by Hyewon Yum
Connection Activities
- Read different versions or variants of "The Three Little Pigs" (e.g. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugenios Trivizas, The Three Little Tamales by Eric A. Kimmel, or The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf). Discuss how the stories are similar and how they are not the same.
- Have students pick a fairytale and re-tell it with the hero becoming the antagonist and the villain becoming the protagonist.
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