The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

1. Bibliography

Scieszka, Jon, and Lane Smith. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. New York, NY: Puffin Books, 2008.

2. Plot Summary 

In this hilarious, fractured fairy tale, Alexander T. Wolf tries to set the record straight and tell his side of the classic story of the three little pigs. Through engaging style, Scieska shares a different narrative of what happened the day that the wolf huffed and puffed and blew three not so innocent little pigs’ houses down. Alexander T. Wolf swears he is innocent and has a reason for everything that happened that day, leaving readers wondering what the real story really is. 

3. Critical Analysis

Alexander T. Wolf looks distinguished as he narrates this “true story” about “a sneeze and a cup of sugar” behind a pair of spectacles. The story is littered with many of the images of pigs, sugar, brick and stick houses that readers will be familiar with as well as cheeky references to the fairy tale style through phrases such as “back in once upon a time time”. Readers will notice how some lines like “little pig, little pig, are you in?” sound very similar to the original story, but paint Al in a more positive light. As for the death of the three little pigs, it’s through reasonable excuses, Al, as he asks us to call him, explains away every part of the original story. It was his cold, he says, that led to the destruction of the houses. He did not intend to kill the pigs, but as a wolf, he was not going to just leave a pig to go to waste, so only after this is when he ate them all up, “wolf’s honor”. 

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and very detailed. As Alexander T. Wolf first begins to explain what this book is about, the illustrations are simple and focused on him. When he gets into the telling of the story, the images become more detailed, colorful, and readers will feel like they are entering into the story with Al. Towards the end, we see an illustrations of a newspaper which shows the way that Alexander was painted by the media as “the Big Bad Wolf”. Older readers will connect to the way that the media creates portrayal of people that are not complete or accurate. 

4. Award(s) and Review Excerpt(s) 

• ALA Notable Book 
  
• School Library Journal Best Book of the Year New York Times Best Book of the Year
  
• From Booklist: “Wiesner has created a funny, wildly imagined tale that encourages kids to leap beyond the familiar, to think critically about conventional stories and illustration, and perhaps to flex their imaginations and create wonderfully subversive versions of their own stories.”

5. Connections

Gather other fractured fairy tales:

• Schwartz, Corey Rosen & Dan Santat. Ninja Red Riding Hood. ISBN 0399163549
  
• Willems, Mo. Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. ISBN 9780062104182
  
• Levinthal, David & Jon Nickle. Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty? ISBN 0375841954
  
• Jackson, Ellen & Kevin O’Malley. Cinder Edna. ISBN 0688162959
  
• Yim, Natasha & Grace Zong. Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas. ISBN 1580896537
  

Compare and contrast fractured fairy tales to their originals. 

Use to start a discussion about biased media.

Use as a jumping off point for an Alexander T. Wolf murder trial. 

Have students write their own fractured fairy tales.

Use to teach cause and effect. 

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly by Simms Taback

 1. Bibliography

Taback, Simms. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Toronto: Viking, 1997.

2. Plot Summary 

This illustrated picture book of the children’s nonsensical song “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly” includes all the absurd lyrics and story of the original about an old lady who eats her way through a series of increasingly large animals and we “don’t know why” but we think that “perhaps she’ll die”. Readers will love this adaptation with hilarious, colorful illustrations that teach the stated moral to “never swallow a horse”. This book adds to the original tale with pages dedicated to a spider soup recipe, a page with types of birds, and a few other fun surprises. 

3. Critical Analysis

The vibrant, almost scrapbook-like, illustrations in this children’s song turned picture book complement the nonsensical story well. The Old Lady’s kooky style and bloodshot, crossed eyes give readers the sense that she is just wacky enough to go “whole hog” and “swallow the dog”. As the animals she swallows become larger, so too does the old lady widen and take up more of the page. The original words of the story are encased in colorful, rectangular scraps like a ransom note, while the extra comments from the animals appear to be handwritten directly on the page.  Equally as appealing is the repetitive growing list of animals the Old Lady has swallowed followed by the thought that “perhaps she’ll die”. The story comes to an end when the Old Lady swallows her largest animal yet, and the only thing left on the page is a tombstone that reads “here lies and old lady” and the final words “Moral: Never swallow a horse”. There is humor in the moral being as nonsensical as the entire song. It is a fun representation of the original children's song with a few extra elements to keep readers engaged. 

4. Award(s) and Review Excerpt(s)

• 1998 Caldecott Honor
  
• From School Library Journal: “From cover to moral (never swallow a horse), this cleverly illustrated version of an old folk favorite will delight children. Each page is full of details and humorous asides, from the names of different types of birds, to a recipe for spider soup, to the rhyming asides from the spectating animals.”
  
• From: Kirkus Review: “Those accustomed to the streamlined version of this ditty won't know what to make of the comments scattered throughout the pages, little asides quipped by animals not yet swallowed; these rhyme with the ``perhaps she'll die'' line of the poem. Fortunately, these additions can be easily ignored or inflated according to taste, and full concentration given to the poem itself and the wild, eye-catching artwork: It is good fun to watch the old lady bulge and bloat, and the sheer corniness of the verse continues to be deeply gratifying.”

5. Connections

Gather other books with children’s playground lore:

• Cole, Joanna. Miss Mary Mack and Other Children’s Street Rhymes. ISBN 0688097499
  
• Sierra, Judy. Schoolyard Rhymes: Kids’ Own Rhymes for Rope-Skipping, Hand Clapping, Ball Bouncing, and Just Plain Fun. ISBN 0375825169
  

Gather other books by Simms Taback:

• Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. ISBN 9780670878550
  
• This is the House that Jack Built. ISBN 0142402001
  
• I Miss You Every Day. ISBN 0670061921
  

Use for choral reading with children. 

Use the page on types of birds to introduce a study on types of birds. 

Play a memory game by showing children the page with items in the city and have them write a list of all the items they can remember. 

Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book by Yuyi Morales

1. Bibliography

Morales, Yuyi. Just a Minute: a Trickster Tale and Counting Book. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2016.

2. Plot Summary 

Grandma Beetle is busy preparing for a party when Señor Calavera shows up at her door to take her. This tricky grandmother keeps Señor Calavera waiting through uno house to sweep, dos steaming pots of tea, tres stacks of corn tortillas, and more. Will she manage to trick Señor Calavera and escape death’s call? 

3. Critical Analysis

From the first page, the double page spread colorful illustrations celebrating Mexican culture will delight readers' senses. Señor Calavera’s sugar skull face, Grandma Beetle’s homemade tortillas and melted cheeses, the vibrant piñatas, and the celebration of family all beautifully represent and celebrate Mexican culture in this trickster tale. In classic trickster tale fashion, Grandma Beetle, having no intention of going with Señor Calavera, tricks him by innocently keeping him waiting as she attends to her tasks for the day repeating “just a minute, Señor Calavera”. Her facial expressions are marked by winks and soft, sly confidence while Señor Calavera continues impatiently waiting for the time when he takes Grandma Beetle to come. Readers will laugh as she continues to escape death and count her tasks in English and Spanish while only the cat appears to worry about the outcome of the story. In the end, Grandma Beetle has made a place for Señor Calavera at the table of her birthday celebration, and he leaves a note promising to come back for her birthday next year. Her cunning tricks him and her hospitality wins him over in the end. 

4. Award(s) and Review Excerpt(s)

• 2004 Pura Belpré Award 
  
• From Kirkus Review: “Lit with dancing lines and warm colors, Morales’s illustrations enhance the appeal of this winning story even further.”
  
• From Booklist: “Like the text, the rich, lively artwork draws strongly upon Mexican culture, with hints of Diego Rivera in Grandma's robust form, and the skeleton resembling the whimsical figurines often seen in Day of the Dead folk art. The splendid paintings and spirited storytelling--along with useful math and multicultural elements--augur a long, full life for this original folktale.”

5. Connections

Gather other Yuyi Morales books:

• Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book. ISBN 9781596433298
  
• Little Night/Nochecita. ISBN 1250073243
  

Gather other Pura Belpré Award recipients:

• Soto, Gary & Guevara, Susan. Chato’s Kitchen. ISBN 0698116003
  
• Garza, Carmen Lomas. Magic Windows/Ventanas mágicas. ISBN 089239157X
  
• Mora, Pat & Lopez, Ragael. Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El dia de los libros. ISBN 0061288780
  

Have students act out the book through a reader’s theatre. 

Have students create and count the objects the Grandma Beetle is counting in both English and Spanish. 

Have students research Mexican traditions and culture and find connections to the book. 

A Busy Creature's Eating Day by Mo Willems

1. Bibliography 

Willems, Mo. A Busy Creature's Day Eating. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group, 2019.

2. Plot Summary

In Mo Willems's hilarious fashion, this colorful ABC book story is not your typical story. An enthusiastic creature begins by eating his way through the alphabet with apples, berries, and cereal, doughnuts, and eggs, a rather normal breakfast for a creature. However, after  “e”,  things get a bit hairy. The creature begins eating furniture, a jacket and kilt, and a napkin among other food items. Before long, the creature's eating day catches up with him. 

3. Critical Analysis

Mo Willems’ uproarious tale comes to life through his brightly colored, geometric, double page spread, illustrations. The creature’s expression tells the story of his journey from delight to dread to dreaminess as he eats his way through everything in his house. The illustrations show Creature’s wild, lively movements with the lines, shadows, and starburst backgrounds. In classic alphabet book fashion, each letter is represented by only one word (except for “Hugh Hot-Sauce Halibut Hoagie” and a few other adjective phrases), yet Willems is able to tell a complete tale. Speech bubbles, punctuation, and letter sizing are used effectively to convey different emotions to the reader. Although the creature is not human, he displays the human-like qualities of overindulgence, regret, and a need for comfort and connection from his parental figure. 

4. Award(s) and Review Excerpt(s)

From Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books: “This is perfect for kids who will appreciate an alphabet with some guts, both full and empty.”

From Kirkus Review: “Children will follow right along with the creature’s mishaps, and they will enjoy predicting (incorrectly) what it might eat and (correctly) what happens as its face starts to turn green.”

5. Connections

Gather other Mo Willems books to read such as:

• Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus! ISBN 078681988X
  
• Knuffle Bunny. ISBN 9780786818709
  
• Waiting Is Not Easy. ISBN 978-1423199571
  

Gather other alphabet books: 

• Martin, Bill Jr. Chicka Chicka Boom Book. ISBN 9781442450707
  
• Dr. Suess. Dr. Seuss’s ABC. ISBN 9780385375160
  
• Binkham, Kelly. Z is for Moose. ISBN 0060799846
  

Use as a comparison to Mo Willems’ other books and discuss style.

Use as a model for students to write their own ABCs book or have students.

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag

1. Bibliography 

Gág, Wanda. Millions of Cats. New York, NY: Coward-McCann, 1928.

2. Plot Summary

In this classic picture book, an elderly man and woman live in a beautiful yet lonely home. To make their home a little less lonely, the old woman suggests the addition of a cat. Being the doting husband, the old man sets out to search the hills and valleys for just that. He finds “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats”, but the problem is that he thinks they are all beautiful and worth keeping. The old man decides to bring all the cats home only to be told by the old woman that this simply will not do. After all, how can they feed this many cats? What begins as a tale for the search for the prettiest cat, ends with the old couple learning that the prettiest cat is the one that they care for. 

3. Critical Analysis

Millions of Cats is classic, simple storytelling at its best. Set in what appears to be a quaint, quiet farm area, the characters are as simple as their little home. Readers will travel with the old man through the quiet, rolling hills and valleys and back as he makes the journey to find a cat for his wife. When they first open the pages of this rectangular book, readers will enjoy the repetitive, mostly predictable story. Although much of this story is predictable, readers will be surprised by the cats’ behavior as they fight over who is the prettiest cat. After all the cannibalistic cats have eaten each other, readers will be satisfied to find out that one “homely” cat has survived. The elderly couple and readers alike can learn in the end that the prettiest cat is not always the best cat, and their cat becomes beautiful after it is loved and cared for. 

The understated black and white illustrations spread across almost every double spread page help make the millions of cats come to life. The illustrations complement the story and help provide a visual for the journey from the valley back home to the old couple's house. The humorous images of all the “millions and billions and trillions” of cats that sit under, next to, and above the story’s hand written narration will delight readers. Readers who are used to colorful images may still find themselves enjoying the simple and playful illustrations in Millions of Cats. 

4. Awards and Review Excerpt(s)

• 1929 Newbery Medal 
  
• School Library Journal’s Top 100 Picture Books 

5. Connections

Gather other books by Wanda Gag such as:

• ABC Bunny. ISBN 0816644160
  
• Nothing At All. ISBN 9780816644186
  
• The Funny Thing. ISBN 0816642419
  

Gather other award winning children’s books featuring cats such as:

• Henkes, Kevin. Kitten’s First Full Moon. ISBN 006241710X
  
• Wenzel, Brendan. They All Saw A Cat. ISBN 1452150133
  

Use as a tool for practicing fluency with the repetitive lines.

Use to analyze dialogue punctuation.

Study the author after reading other books by Wanda Gag with Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved To Draw. 

• Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved To Draw. ISBN 0670062928

This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

 

 

1. Bibliography

Klassen, Jon. This Is Not My Hat. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2012. 

2. Plot Summary

This illustrated children’s book by Jon Klassen tells the story of a shifty little fish who steals a hat from a much larger fish while he sleeps. Sure that he will get away with his crime, and convinced that his crime is harmless and justifiable due to the suitable size of the hat, the little fish swims through the ocean, hat on head, passing a crab along the way, to the place “where the plants are big and tall and close together”. Will the big fish really not realize his hat has been stolen? Will he find the little fish? Will he take drastic measures to get his hat back?     

3. Critical analysis

Fans of Jon Klassen will be familiar with and love the amusing, albeit slightly unethical, characters in this story of a stolen little blue bowler hat. Readers will quickly recognize the sly nature of the little fish when turning the first page to see Klassen’s opening illustration, a large black, full page picture of the ocean’s underwater containing only a teeny fish wearing a teeny hat, his eyes looking back with worry and guilt. Klassen humorously highlights the contrasting size of the enormous big fish through his large double page illustrations and the size of the tiny fish through more black space filled pages. The story is told more through the illustrations of the characters and their expressive fish eyes than it is through the words on the pages. Readers will be thrilled as they realize and can predict that everything that the little fish assures us through short statements on each page will not happen, is happening right before their eyes. After the anticipation builds to a peak, and the big fish begins swimming back with his hat, the wordless, illustrated ending leaves readers wondering what became of the little fish. If Klassen’s other stories are any indication, they can speculate that it was indeed a grievous ending for the little fish. 

4. Awards and Review Excerpt(s)

• 2013 Caldecott Medal
  
• 2015 Kate Greenaway Medal
  
• From Horn Book Reviewer Robin L. Smith: “The vertical lines of the barely undulating underwater plants rest against the horizontal streams of air bubbles that mark the forward motion in the illustrations, controlling the story and propelling it at the same time”
  
• From School Library Journal’s Caroline Ward: “This not-to-be-missed title will delight children again and again.

5. Connections

Gather other Caldecott Medal Books to read such as:

• Blackall, Sophia. Hello Lighthouse. ISBN 9780316362382
  
• Alexander, Kwame. The Undefeated. ISBN 1328780961
  

Gather other Jon Klassen books to read such as:

• I Want My Hat Back. ISBN 0763655988
  
• We Found A Hat. ISBN 0763656003
  

Use with Jon Klassen’s other books to discuss author’s style. 

Use as a model for making predictions. 

Have students write their own endings.