“The Three Little Pigs” by Steven Kellogg, author and illustrator.
William Morrow & Company, New York, 1997, 32 pages, Grades K-3 (and adults wanting to laugh!)
Anthropomorphism is the principle of dressing animals in human clothes and having them carry on conversations. In children’s literature, anthropomorphism has a long history in novels with the characters in Alice in Wonderland serving as prime examples. In today’s film and literature industry, it is continually used as the characters become more delightful or fearful depending on the author’s intention. Fairy tales and fables lend themselves particularly well to anthropomorphism as readers easily connect with the main characters.
Steven Kellogg has written a hilarious account of “The Three Little Pigs” using this concept. It is so cleverly done that you will want to rer-ead the book when you are finished.
Serafina Sow has three little piglets to raise. Short on money, she comes up with a scheme to make ready cash by starting a portable waffle company. She bolts an old waffle iron onto a contraption on wheels and begins her business. Soon she and her three children are pushing the machine throughout nearby villages and everyone is eating her delicious waffles. The children enthusiastically help their mother. In short order, the family is rolling in money and is famous.
Given her new-found wealth, Serafina enrolls her youngsters in Hog Hollow Academy. Having been given this educational advantage, the three little pigs thrive and become outstanding athletes in hog basketball and superior actors in pig plays. With this, Serafina decides to retire to the Gulf of Pasta. After a touching goodbye, the children take over the waffle business.
Setting aside their mortar boards, the three little pigs continue the successful business started by Serafina. So successful is their business, that they each build a house for themselves. Percy builds a straw house on the top of a beautiful bluff. Pete constructs a log cabin on a nearby hill. Their sister, Prudence, designs and erects a lovely brick manor house in the valley. The wafflery continues to be wildly successful.
But this happy situation is rudely overturned when a big, bad wolf appears. They ask him what kind of waffle he wants and get the frightening response that he hates waffles but loves to eat sausage, bacon and ham. The wolf, named Tempesto, attacks the three little pigs. He overturns their waffle machine and chases them to their houses.
As he threatens to blow down Percy’s house, the little pig writes down a plea for help on a paper airplane and throws it out the window. Tempesto violently blows the house down.
Luckily, Percy escapes to Pete’s house. But the scenario looks dire as the wolf now approaches the second house. Prudence watches the scene anxiously from her brick house. Meanwhile, the paper airplane soars over a great distance and lands in Serafina’s salad plate. She realizes that something must be done and quickly acts.
What does Serafina do? Are all the houses blown down? How would you stop the big, bad wolf? To find out the answers to these questions, go to the library and check out this delightful adaptation of the famous tale.
This is one of the funniest, most entertaining picture books you will ever read. Be sure to pay close attention to all the small side drawings as half the fun is found in them. You will enjoy reading this book with children in your family. They will clap their hands at the antics of three little pigs and the wolf.
So if you ever need a laugh and an enjoyable family experience with a picture book, Steven Kellogg’s “The Three Little Pigs” provides it. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
