The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs 
by  Jon Scieszka

Illustrated by Lane Smith

Students will enjoy noticing the similarities and twists from the traditional fairytale as well as the humor in this funny story.

Book Talk

Wolf decides to finally have his say in this hilarious version of “The Three Little Pigs”.  Wolf feels like his intentions have been completely misunderstood and he is out to set the record straight with anyone who will listen to him!

He patiently explains to readers that on that fateful day, he was simply trying to bake a birthday cake for his sweet grandmother.  He had a cold which was causing him to sneeze.  He also realized that he was out of sugar and he needed a cup of sugar to finish the cake. 

Wolf went off to his neighbor’s house to ask for a cup of sugar, because, as  Wolf explains, that's simply what neighbors do.  His neighbor just happened to be the First Little Pig.  The Little Pig did not answer the door when Wolf knocked.  Just then, a sneeze came upon Wolf.  

A favorite line--According to Wolf, this is what happened next:

“I just didn’t want to walk into someone else’s house. So I called, ‘Little Pig, Little Pig, are you in?” No answer….. That’s when my nose started to itch. I felt a sneeze coming on. Well, I huffed. And I snuffed. And that whole darn straw house fell down.”

The rest of the story continues in a similar pattern:  Wolf ,in his innocent quest to find a cup of sugar for his Grandmother's cake, comes upon the two other pigs who are also his neighbors. No one answers the doors.  He feels a sneeze. He huffs and snuffs. The stick house falls in and the brick house does not.

The story ends with the poor, misunderstood Wolf being arrested for trying to break into the Third Little Pig’s house after the Third Little Pig made a rude comment about Wolf’s grandmother.

This is a fun book to use along side the traditional fairy tale to talk about Opinion Writing.

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Fairytale (fractured)

Reading Workshop strategies: Prediting, Inferring, Critiquing, Analyzing

Writing Workshop: Opinion Writing, Fairytales

Jon Scieszka’s website: http://www.jsworldwide.com/