The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

The Bibliography
Trivizas, Eugene. 1993. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Ill. by Helen Oxenbury. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0689505698

The Plot
The three little wolves leave their mother's house to live on their own, but before they go, Mother warns them to be wary of the Big Bad Pig. They build a house of bricks, but the Big Bad Pig knocks it down with a sledgehammer after attempting to knock it down by huffing and puffing. After a narrow escape, they build another house of concrete. The Big Bad Pig comes around again, huffs and puffs to no avail, and destroys the house with his pneumatic drill. The wolves escape again, this time building a house of barbed wire, iron bars, armor plates, heavy metal padlocks, Plexiglas and reinforced steel chains. The Big Bad Pig strolls up, huffs and puffs and blows the house up with dynamite. The wolves finally decide to build a house of flowers, which the pig begins to huff and puff and do something else awful to, but stops to enjoy the scent of the flowers. He realizes because of the beautiful smell of flowers that he's been a big bad pig but wants to be a big good pig instead. He sings and dances, then he and the wolves play games, become friends, and live happily ever after.

The Analysis
Normally I would never say that a children's book is awful, but in my opinion, this book is AWFUL. Yes, it warrants bolding and redding. I would never read it to a group of children. The story is just bad. No kid knows what a pneumatic drill is. If they didn't have the illustrations of Helen Oxenbury to look at (which is this book's only redeeming quality ... great illustrations, nice watercolor), they'd have no idea what was going on. What is with the repeated quote, "By the hair on our chinny-chin-chins, we will not let you in, not for all the tea leaves in our china teapot"? Are they offering the pig the tea leaves? That doesn't make sense. Are they expecting the pig to give them tea leaves? No, because they already have them. I don't get it. Oh, and the little wolves didn't build a house out of barbed wire, iron bars, armor plates, heavy metal padlocks, Plexiglas and reinforced steel chains, that was a prison. Why didn't the story just end there with the little wolves locking the pig up in their terrifying jailhouse? Not only is the story bad, but there are way too many words per page, which is not conducive to storytime sharing. I suppose the ending is sweet, with the pig becoming tender-hearted and friendly with the wolves, but that's not good enough to turn it around in my eyes.

The Review
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1993)
Never mind the other incarnations of this tale--classic, fractured, rapped; this inversion will have children giggling from the outset. Sent into the world by a mother who wears hair curlers, three "cuddly" wolves build a brick house, then try to fend off a snarling thug of a pig who demolishes it with a sledgehammer. Their next place is concrete; the pig has a pneumatic drill. They construct a metal fortress, complete with steel chains and Plexiglas; the pig goes for dynamite. Then they build a house of flowers and the pig pulls a "Ferdinand," not only reforming but making it a happy m‚nage ... quatre. This latter-day plea for a peaceable kingdom reckons once and for all with the question at the core of this familiar tale--why must pigs and wolves be enemies? Oxenbury provides dauntingly well-executed watercolors, offering such charming contrasts as an angular modernistic concrete home in an otherwise pastoral setting.

The Connection
If, for all the tea leaves in my little china teapot, I was forced to use this story in a program, I'd use it in conjunction with other fractured and non fractured versions of The Three Little Pigs, like an original telling of it by Joseph Jacobs, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, The Three Swingin' Pigs by Vicky Rubin, and maybe a puppet show version from the book One Person Puppetry Streamlined and Simplified by Yvonne Amar Frey called "Wolfi and the Three Squealers," and have my kids write their own versions of the story. I really can't see myself using this version though. Maybe I'll just do this program MINUS this book.

Rumpelstiltskin

The Bibliography
Zelinsky, Paul. 1986. Rumpelstiltskin. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN 0525442653

The Plot
The poor miller in town gains favor with the king by telling him the outrageous lie that his daughter can spin straw into gold. Poor daughter! Of course she can't do that! The king locks her in a room full of straw and tells her that if she doesn't spin all the straw into gold in one night, he's going to kill her! A strange little man appears and spins the straw into gold for her. This happens twice more, and, on the third night, the king says he will marry the miller's daughter if she can once again spin the straw into gold. The strange little man appears again and spins the straw into gold on the condition that she will give him her firstborn child. A year or so after the marriage, the Queen has a baby and who should turn up but the strange little man. He tells the Queen that if she can tell him his name, he will allow her to keep her baby. Smart Queen sends one of her maids out to the woods to eavesdrop on the little man and finds him singing a song to himself that, conveniently, contains his name. She correctly names the little man, thus keeping her baby and they all live happily ever after.

The Analysis
Paul Zelinsky is a wonderful artist, as is evident by his Caldecott award and three Caldecott honor books. I like the facial expressions the miller's daughter/queen has throughout the book and how accurately they correspond with the story. The oil-painted artwork was definitely worthy of a Caldecott Honor and was done in Renaissance style by painting over watercolor with oil paints. It's very beautiful.

About the story, it's interesting to read the note on the text at the end of the book, where Zelinsky discusses how the story of Rumpelstiltsken came about and that he used several editions and some of his own words to create his version. The thing I don't understand about the story is this: Why in the world would you marry a man that threatened to kill you on more than one occasion?!

The Review
Tammy (BookHive (www.bookhive.org))
Could you spin straw into gold? Well, that is exactly what a greedy King orders a miller's daughter to do in this tale. Locked in a room she becomes so desperate to do what the King asks that she is forced to bargain with a tiny man whom she eventually promises her first born child. When the time comes to give up her child she can only break the bargain by guessing the strange little man's name. Based on the Grimm brothers' earliest version Zelinsky's beautifully detailed oil paintings depict the medieval time period wonderfully and add a creative element to this well-known tale.

The Connection
If I didn't use this story as part of my Fairy/Folk Tales storytime, I would also be inclined to do a storytime only using books illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, such as Hansel and Gretel and Dust Devil, written by Anne Isaacs. Or maybe have a Paul O. Zelinsky storytime featuring Rumpelstiltskin and his other Caldecott award and honor winners, Rapunzel, Swamp Angel and Hansel and Gretel. We could then attempt to mimic his art style by painting a picture, then painting over it in another media.

Turtle's Race with Beaver

The Bibliography
Bruchac, Joseph, and James Bruchac. 2003. Turtle's Race with Beaver. Ill. by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 00803728522

The Plot
During spring, summer and fall, Turtle loves sunning on the rocks in her very own pond. When winter rolls around, Turtle swims to the bottom of her pond to hibernate. While Turtle is resting in the muck, Beaver moves in and takes over the pond, building himself a dam and a lodge. Uh oh! When spring comes back around, Turtle swims to the surface to find that her pond has completely changed! She offers to share her pond with Beaver, but he won't have any of that. He challenges Turtle to a swimming race for ownership of the pond, but Turtle outsmarts him and wins the race. Turtle again offers to share the pond with Beaver, but he's too embarrassed by his loss (and probably his stubbornness), so he moves away to another pond that is also inhabited by a turtle. This time, he knows better, and learns to share.

The Analysis
The illustrations in this book are fantastic. Each page is full of brilliant colors using pen-and-ink, gouache (like watercolor but a little heavier, thicker and darker) and pastels. Lots of people, in fact, some of the reviewers that I read, believe this story to be the Bruchacs' retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare, but it's not! This story does not come from Aesop or Africa, but from (most likely, according to Joseph Bruchac) the Iroquois in the Northeastern United States.

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that on some of the pages where there is a large paragraph of text, it's difficult to read the black text on the colorful background, so if I were reading this story aloud during storytime, I might have a hard time of it.

The Review
Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2004 (Vol. 57, No. 5)) Father and son team Joseph and James Bruchac follow their previous picture book collaboration, How Chipmunk Got His Stripes (BCCB 3/01), with this Seneca tale of a good-natured turtle who outwits a selfish beaver. A happy resident of "a beautiful little pond," Turtle buries herself in the mud for the winter without a thought of trouble, but while she is sleeping, Beaver arrives and claims her pond as his own. Come spring, Turtle emerges and discovers the interloper; her suggestion to Beaver that they share the pond is met with a challenge to race. Word of the race spreads through the forest, and all the animals come to root for their favorite, but Turtle wins the race with a clever trick. Despite her offer that they share the pond, Beaver slinks away in embarrassment--but it’s clear from the conclusion that even old Beavers can learn new tricks. The language is crisply effective, and the contrast between Turtle’s bucolic life and Beaver’s industrious one and their inevitable conflict have innate suspense. The text builds to a careening momentum that culminates in Turtle’s win, making this prime readaloud or storytelling material. Aruego and Dewey’s pen-and-ink, gouache, and pastel illustrations reflect the story’s energy in the linear compositions and the zingy palette. Joseph Bruchac includes an opening note about the origins and sources of this story; James also includes some information about uses for this humorous teaching tale.

The Connection
This would be an excellent story to incorporate into a Folktales storytime that I do using any one of the various retellings of Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and any of those Enormous Potato/Carrot/Turnip stories. I also have made giant mad-lib style stories to accompany some of my storytimes, and for this one, I'd probably use my version of The Emperor's New Clothes where the kids choose funny words to replace integral words in the story. They always love that, especially because I made a special, extra large briefcase type thing to carry them in, so they travel! Ahh, the joys of being a programmer!