The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! is a children's book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Released in a number of editions since its first release by Viking Kestrel, an imprint of Viking Penguin in 1989, it is a parody of The Three Little Pigs as told by the Big Bad Wolf, known in the book as "A. Wolf", short for "Alexander T. Wolf". The book was honored by the American Library Association as an ALA Notable Book.[1]
 | |
| Author | Jon Scieszka |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Lane Smith |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's book |
| Publisher | Viking Children's Books |
Publication date | 1989 |
| Pages | 32 |
| ISBN | 0-14-054056-3 |
| OCLC | 43158890 |
Plot
This story starts with a wolf named Alexander T. introducing himself, claiming that the story everyone knows is wrong, and that he was unjustly framed. He tells it from his perspective: he was making a cake for his grandmother but ran out of sugar and didn't have enough money to buy more. He then tries to ask one of his neighbors for a cup of sugar, a pig (which is the first little pig), whom he accidentally killed due to his sneezing knocking down his house. The first pig (who was in the straw house) was not in, while the second pig (who was in the stick house) was "shaving the hairs on his chinny chin-chin". The wolf then eats the pig, then he tries to ask the second pig whom he accidentally kills too. He then asks the final pig (who had a whole sack full of sugar). The third pig (who may have heard his brothers being eaten alive, and thus assumes Alexander is now after him too) talks impolite to him. (The third pig had a giant sack full of sugar and wouldn't give Alexander one little cup of sugar for his "dear sweet granny's birthday cake".) Alexander then goes insane after the pig insults his grandmother. Policemen pigs heard about the news and accused Alexander of causing havoc (mainly due to the fact that the reporters felt a story about a wolf with a sneezing cold looking for sugar was too boring). Then Alexander is taken captive and is sentenced to ten thousand years in pig prison (that is, for the destruction of the pigs's houses --murder of the first two and attempted murder of the third-- and the attempted sugar robbery). At the end, the wolf suggests that maybe the reader would loan him a cup of sugar.
Critical reception
Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[2] It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[3]
Adaptation
This book was later adapted into a Weston Woods Studios animated short in 2008 with Paul Giamatti as the wolf.
See also
- The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, another inverted version of the story
Notes
- Molly Dunham Glassman. "Writing team creates comedy for children", Baltimore Sun, reprinted in Cedar Rapids Gazette, October 18, 1992, page 2F.
- National Education Association (2007). "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- Bird, Elizabeth (July 6, 2012). "Top 100 Picture Books Poll Results". School Library Journal "A Fuse #8 Production" blog. Archived from the original on December 4, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012.