1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wiesner, David. 2001.
THE THREE PIGS. Ill. by David
Wiesner. New York, NY: Clarion. ISBN
0618007016
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In this fractured fairy tale, the three little pigs are able
to escape the clutches of the dastardly wolf by literally escaping the pages of
their traditional folktale. As they
discover their new world, they meet the cat with the fiddle from the "Hey
Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme and save a dragon from being slain in a medieval
story. After the three pigs and company
wander the pages of other stories, they reinsert themselves back into the
traditional telling of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS.
However, this time, when the wolf appears for his turn to blow down the
brick house, he is met by the pigs' entourage and scared away. The three pigs take matters into their own
hands and rewrite the ending to their story.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The action of the story unfolds in four locations: the
traditional tale's open fields; the new, unscripted literary world; the prairie
setting of the nursery rhyme, and the dragon's medieval grounds. Wiesner invites his readers to join the humorous
journey the three pigs embark on by creatively using different types of line
drawings and sketches as well as watercolors and gouache to depict the
various settings in which this story
occurs. As the pigs transcend the pages
of each location, the illustrator also uses distinct dimensional space features
while skillfully changing the colors and textures of the characters to bring
this story to life.
Although the story begins with "Once upon a time",
Wiesner is able to move the traditional telling of this folktale very quickly
by using a clutter of split, action frames.
He uses bold, two-dimensional lined drawings to show readers the
environment in which this traditional tale occurs. As the wolf blows down the house made of straw, readers see the first pig
flying out of a rectangular story frame, as he exclaims "Hey! He blew
me right out of the story!"
When the pig enters this new, uncharted world, readers are
able to detect noticeable differences in the way he is drawn. The fine lines and intricate details shown in
his coat and facial features reveal to readers that the story has now shifted
into a three-dimensional setting. Gone
are the confining story frames, and the pig finally steps into this new, empty
space. As the other characters enter this new world, Wiesner allows them to
communicate with one another by using speech balloons, a sharp contrast to the
straight-forward, simple typed sentences found in the original folktale's
pages. Readers then see the pigs explore
this new world among the fallen, and scattered, twisted pages of their own
story. At one point, the pigs make a
paper airplane and playfully fly through several empty white pages of the
book. This continues the momentum of the
story as readers must flip through the barren pages to find out what happens
next.
Wiesner gives the pigs the ability to join other stories,
and as they do, they take on the characteristics found in the stories'
format. For example, when the pigs join
the nursery rhyme setting, they transition back into the two-dimensional
environment, and are drawn with smooth lines and soft, pastel watercolors. In the dragon's medieval setting, they are
depicted in bold, black-and-white charcoal sketches. When the dragon enters the pigs' new literary world,
Wiesner brings him to life using the gouche technique, and readers are able to
observe the skin texture and brilliant mixture of colors found in his scales. As an added bonus, the dragon maintains the
Old English vernacular used in his story as his speech balloon reads "Many
thanks for rescuing me, O brave and noble swine."
At the story's conclusion, the three pigs, along with their
new friends, re-enter the book's original folktale so they can have soup in the
pig's brick home. As the traditional
tale dictates, the wolf tries to blow down the sturdy home, but to his
surprise, is greeted and scared away by the gigantic dragon. When this occurs, the dragon's head
interrupts the sentences within the story frame, and the letters scatter and fall
to the ground. The pigs collect specific
letters in a basket so that when readers finally turn to the last page of the
book, the pigs are putting the finishing touches to their own story with
"And they all lived happily ever after."
The major theme of this witty, fractured fairy tale is to
remind readers that they have the power within themselves to write their own
story and create their happily ever after.
This gets young readers excited about many new and wonderful
possibilities. As the saying goes
"Be the captain of your own ship."
Older children will delight in the charming characters and picturesque illustrations
Wiesner brings to this amusing and stimulating version of THE THREE LITTLE
PIGS.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
2002 Caldecott Medal Award
BOOKLIST: "Wiesner's latest is a post-modern fantasy
for young readers that takes Scieszka's fragmentation a step further: it not
only breaks apart and deliciously reinvents the pigs' tale, it invites readers to step beyond the boundaries of
story and picture book altogether."
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: " Wiesner delights in
deconstructing pages of illustrations and treating them as building materials.
His porkers have real personalities! They also are performers, delivering their
lines in speech balloons. Their glide along the empty pages is almost brazen.
Their adventure is surreal for sure, but done with joy and bravado that demand
repeated visits to experience it all."
GOODREADS: "Satisfying both as a story and as an
exploration of the nature of story, The
Three Pigs takes visual narrative to a new level."
5. CONNECTIONS
*Show older children a "Meet the Author" video in
which the author and illustrator, David Wiesner, discusses the
creative process he used in making this story.
Found at www.teachingbooks.net/author_collection.cgi?id=47&a=1
*Have students read several examples of other fractured fairy tales, and have them compare
and contrast them to the original folktale:
Hartman, Bob. THE
WOLF WHO CRIED BOY. ISBN 0142401595
Shaskan, Trisha Speed. HONESTLY, RED RIDING HOOD WAS
ROTTEN! THE STORY OF LITTLE RED RIDING
HOOD AS TOLD BY THE WOLF. ISBN 1404870466
Trivizas, Eugene. THE
THREE LITTLE WOLVES AND THE BIG BAD PIG.
ISBN 068981528X
*Afterwards, invite
students to write their own fractured fairy tales. Use the
International Reading Association's Read,
Write, and Think website to help them start and then develop their story. The website may be found at www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/fairytales/
No comments:
Post a Comment