CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 2002
by David Wiesner
New York: Clarion Books, 2001
38 pp.
Age: 5+
Interests: pigs, dragons, fairy tales
Also by this author: Tuesday, Flotsam
The story of the three little pigs unfolds in the usual way, until the pigs decide to escape from the storybook rather than be eaten by the wolf. They climb out of the picture panels, folding one into a paper airplane which they ride around. They climb in and out of a two other story books before returning to the brick house with their new friends: the cat and the fiddle, and a very large dragon. The wolf is scared off and pigs and company live happily ever after.
Beautifully rendered book for anyone looking for a truly post-modern fairy tale. Story is suitable for all ages, though it’s just so ‘meta’ that children under about five might find it a little too abstract. Not as magical as Tuesday, but still amusing.
(My daughter – 5 – said nothing when we read it, I thought she didn’t like it much, but suddenly four days later she has announced it to be “really really funny”. I think she had to digest it all…)
Rarest Kind of Best 