The Three Little Pigs by Paul Galdone
Galdone, Paul. The Three Little Pigs. New York, Houghton Mifflin/Clarion Books, 1970 (P. Galdone, Illustrator) ISBN 9780395288139
In the Three Little Pigs we see the Three Little Pigs build their homes out of different materials. The first two pigs chose sticks and straw, and built beautiful homes, until the Big Bad Wolf came to blow their homes down. Read on to see if the third Little Pig, who made his home out of bricks, will also have his house blown down!
The tale of the Three Little Pigs is a classic folk tale that many people know and love. The chance are, if you ask someone to name a folk tale, it will be the Three Little Pigs because it is timeless and beloved by many. In this tale, we see the Three Pigs buy materials to build their homes, and as we know, two pigs meet a tragic fate. The third pig, unlike the rest of their siblings made the wise decision to build their home out of brick which in turn allowed for the pig to keep their home, and survive the Big Bad Wolf's attempts of eating him. While the choice of choosing bricks as the primary source for building the home was a wise decision it was not the only wise decision the Pig made. It may have very well been possible that all three pigs chose to make their homes out of bricks, but the 3rd Pig was clever enough to realize the wolf's true intentions which allowed for the Pig to outsmart the wolf each time! That is something I love, because it shows that while yes, hard work and perseverance pay off, it is also a good idea to think critically to get out of any situation! The story itself is not overly complicated, and as a result, any younger reader should be able to read with little issues.
By reading the back of the book, I learned that Paul Galdone illustrated over 300 titles in his lifetime, including this one, and he was a Caldecott Honor recipient. The illustrations in The Three Little Pigs makes it very clear why. After looking at some of his other titles, it is clear that Galdone has a very recognizable art style. He layers colors to illustrate changes in fur color, time changes (in the background to indicate the change in time) and to add more depth to his illustrations. Additionally, Galdone always seems to find a way to add small details that might go undiscovered if you were not looking very hard, such as when the Mama Pig is sending off the Three Little Pigs, you can see that one of the Pigs has two very tiny tears drops to show that they are sad about leaving. Each pig is also draw with distinctive patches to signify that which pig is being talked about, and despite the eyes just being drawn as dots the use of eyebrows on the pigs make their faces very expressive and clear to the young reader exactly how each pig is feeling! It had been a while since I had read any version of the Three Little Pigs but I fully enjoyed reading Paul Galdone's version, and I enjoyed looking over all his illustrations.
Elizabeth Fronk from Children's Literature says that while the Three Little Pigs "does not go into great detail; young readers can still enjoy the theme of readiness, hard work and the third pig's triumph." For more timeless classics like the Three Little Pigs, readers will enjoy reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, or Jack and the Beanstalk. Activities that can follow reading this title include having the young reader gather up sticks and rocks from outside (to represent the sticks and bricks from the story) and have them build their own homes. Once they are built, they can "blow their house down" and that is when you should have them discuss why the stick house blew down so easily and why the brick house didn't. To further the conversation, the young reader can also be asked, if they had to choose a material that wasn't straw, sticks, or bricks, what would they choose to build their homes out of and why!
Awards for this title:
- Parents' Choice Award 2003, Silver, Best 25 Books in 25 Years
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