The Three Little Pigs
Retold and illustrated by Barry Moser

Moser, Barry. The Three Pigs. NY, NY: Scholastic. ISBN: 0439334713

PLOT SUMMARY:

Mother pig told her three piglets that it is time for them to go out and start their own lives.  The three pigs went their separate way and built houses for themselves to live in.  The first pig built a house of straw, the second pig build his house from twigs, and the third pig built his house from bricks.  A wolf comes along and tells the first pig to let him in and when the pig does not he threatens to blow his house down.  The wolf blows the house down and eats the first pig.  The wolf then visits the second pig and the same situation occurs.  The wolf comes to see that last pig but when tries to blow the house down, he finds it impossible.  The wolf then tries to lure the pig out of the house by inviting him to pick apples and go to the fair.  The pig goes and does those things early before the wolf comes.  On the day that pig visits the fair he gets there early but does not leave before the wolf arrives.  The pig hides inside a butter churn and begins rolling down the hill toward the wolf which scares him.  The wolf becomes angry because he discovers that the pig tricked him.  The wolf comes down the pig’s chimney to get him but the pig had been boiling water.  The pig then has wolf stew for dinner. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

This is a classic story retold by Barry Moser.  The illustrations are scary for a young child; the pigs in particular have frightening faces.  If one were to look only at the illustrations and not the words it would appear that the pigs were evil and the wolf was friendly.  Some of the illustrations of the wolf make him look almost friendly.  They were created in watercolor so the use of color is very beautiful and slightly blurred.  The images are created in such a way to create the illusion of the sun without actually showing it.  The characters’ faces are created with a lot of emotion so that the reader can almost see what is going on through the images. 

CONNECTIONS:

An activity can be for the children to try and build a small house for one of the three pigs.  Sugar cubes can be used to represent bricks, tooth picks for sticks, and pine needles for hay.  The children can then try to blow the house down.

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REVIEWS:

Review: The Three Little Pigs

- Editorial review - Kirkus Reviews

The chubby piglets are very small, the wolf big, bony, and very bad, in this sly retelling of the familiar tale. Moser (Those Building Men, 2000, etc.) relates it in formal language, toning down the traditional story line's violence but adding plenty of biting (so to speak) humor with expressively drawn figures in deceptively sunny rural landscapes. Never has that big bad wolf been better served.