The Three Little Pigs, retold by Steven Kellogg

 This week, I enjoyed reading Steven Kellogg's hilarious variant of The Three Little Pigs, not in small part because I love to hear funny modernizations of traditional stories. This book did not disappoint! When three little pigs takeover the family waffle-making business from their mother, the Big Bad Wolf (who, in this retelling, is named Tempesto and wears a shirt that says "Say yes to thugs") decides that instead of a waffle, he wants a side of bacon and comes after the pigs. As the wolf is heading to blow down the first pig's house, the clever pig sends a paper airplane with a help message out his window to the local sheriff. While the sheriff is unable to send help, the airplane makes it all the way to their mother in another town. Their mother comes out of retirement just in time to help her three little piglets steam the wolf in their oversized waffle iron as he comes down the chimney. The waffling experience "steamed the meanness out of" the wolf, who takes up residence at a beach, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The illustrations in Kellogg's The Three Little Pigs are a feast for the eyes.  On most pages, Kellogg's page layout places the text in the white space above or below the illustration, which frames the pictures and allows them to stand on their own. On the pages that are full color spreads, the text resides quietly at the very top of the page, so as not to intrude on the colorful and lively scene it is describing. The illustrations are crammed with details, from the little paper airplane flying across multiple pages to reach their mother pig in another city to the bird clutching his suitcase as he flees his nest in one of the little pigs' houses. Publishers Weekly proclaims that "kids will have a jolly time poring over the particulars in the illustrations" (Devereaux and Roback 1997). In typical Kellogg fashion, he includes many nods to the older or adult reader with his clever wordplay hidden amongst the illustrations, such as the plays the young piglets performed at school - "Hamlet" and "La Toasta by Porcini," a clever riff on Puccini's opera Tosca.

While Kellogg is careful to retain plenty of the traditional elements in the three little pigs, he also includes plenty of his own spin on the tale. He stays true enough to the original plot and is careful to include the characters' classic lines ("I'll huff and I'll puff" and "not by the hair of our chinny-chin-chin"), but these lines do not get the word-for-word repetition they usually do when the wolf visits each piggie's home. Kellogg peppers the story with a rich and varied vocabulary, using the illustrations to provide the context for deciphering unfamiliar language. School Library Journal praises how well "Kellogg's usual busy, highly defined illustrations complement the humorous, clever text" (Falk 1997). Many families with more sensitive readers will appreciate the gentle way Kellogg treats the end of the story, with the wolf retiring to be a beach bum and the three pigs living the rest of their lives. The very end of the story feels a bit rushed - the pigs jump from defeating the wolf to marrying, having children, and creating a waffle-making empire, all within a two-page spread - but it is a very satisfying ending nevertheless.

This variant of the tale will be a delight for children of varied experiences, but its cleverness can be best appreciated when the reader also knows the traditional version of the tale. Reading first the more traditional version of the three pigs, along with this story and other variants, such as The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, retold by Eugene Trivizas and illustrated by Helen Oxbury, is a great way to help children find similarities and differences in this tale. Another approach might be to read a few of Kellogg's other traditional tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, as part of an author study. The Reading Rockets website has a video interview with Steven Kellogg that might be a nice addition (available at http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/kellogg).

If you're looking for a joyful, adventurous tale with plenty of danger - and maple syrup - then Steven Kellogg's The Three Little Pigs will satisfy your appetite. Two paws up!


-Charlie Brown

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References

Devereaux, Elizabeth, and Diane Roback. 1997. "Forecasts: Children's Books." Publishers Weekly 244, no. 23: 45.

Falk, Lisa. 1997. "Preschool to Grade 4: Nonfiction." School Library Journal 43, no. 9: 203.

Kellogg, Steven. 1997. The Three Little Pigs. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 9780688087326

Reading Rockets. n.d. "A video interview with Steven Kellogg."Reading Rockets. Accessed February 9, 2019. http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/kellogg.