The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf - a review redux

The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf (A StoryPlay Book)

by Mark Teague

TEAGUE, Mark. The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf, illus. by Mark Teague. 48p. Scholastic/Cartwheel. May 2017. Tr $5.99. ISBN 9781338157741.

PreS-Gr 2--When a farmer and his wife decide to move to Florida, they pay the three little pigs for their good work and send them on their way. And so begins the familiar adventure, with a comic twist. One pig spends his wages on potato chips, one buys "sody-pop," and the third, "who was altogether un-pig-like," buys building supplies. Teague's take on the story includes a hapless wolf who is very hungry and only somewhat bad. The three comically large anthropomorphic pigs are painted in Teague's signature action-packed, droll style. Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs may be the fractured folktale standard, but Teague's title is a worthy addition to the canon. This is a reissued, smaller variation of the original book (2013) and is repackaged as a "Story Play" book with two new additions--word bubble insets containing questions to promote early literacy skills (e.g., "Why was the wolf able to blow the straw house down?") and suggested writing and drawing prompts. VERDICT This version may suit educators but will be best shared in one-on-one settings because of its new, smaller size. For story-times, choose the original and enjoy these pigs in their full-size glory.


 Copyright © 2017 School Library Journal, the property of Media Source, Inc.  Reprinted here with permission.

All of these resources are available to accompany The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf. 

• Spot the Difference Activity
• Race to Safety Maze Activity
• Pigs Coloring Sheet
• Coloring Sheet With Speech Bubbles
• Build a Pig Fortress Activity
• Animal Match Up Activity
• Answer Key for Spot the Difference and Race to Safety

Note:
 My review of the original format of The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf is here.

Urgency Emergency! Easy reader fun!

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I'm not a fan of many beginning readers.  I am constantly frustrated by the lack of consistency in the labeling of beginning readers (the difficulty variation in similarly labeled levels is maddening), and discouraged by the insistence of some adults that children must choose a particularly numbered or labeled book regardless of whether or not it appeals to him.  That's why I so seldom review beginning readers. Of late, however, I do like many of Toon Books' offerings, Holiday House's I Like to Read series, and Eve Bunting's Frog and Friends series).

Now I have another series that makes me happy because it's funny in that dry sort of way in which the Brits are so accomplished - and it's leveled (see below), but not labeled.

Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf
Urgency Emergency! Itsy Bitsy Spider
Dosh Archer, 2013
Albert Whitman & Company

The Urgency Emergency! series follows Doctor Glenda, Nurse Percy, and the patients they see each day in the emergency room.  Patients are the inhabitants of fractured folktales and nursery rhymes that should be familiar to most readers.

In Itsy Bitsy Spider, Itsy has a gash on her head that requires stitches.  How did it happen? We hear the report of a bystander,

"I don't know what happened," cried Miss Muffet. "I was just walking along when I found the spider lying in a puddle of water at the bottom of the waterspout." 

And the patient relates,

"The last thing I remember is a big whoosh of water rushing toward me."

But fear not! Everything turns out fine - even the weather,

Outside the sun had come out and dried up all the rain.

Nurse Percy and Doctor Glenda are the anchor characters of the series, and the straight man and woman in this fun and silly series.

48 pages, brightly-colored illustrations and limited text on each page, many double-spread paintings
Looking for reading levels?  Here they are:

Age Levels: 5-8, Grades: Kindergarten-3
CCR-RL.K,1,3.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10
RL.2.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10

UK version, Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2009

These are new to the US, but apparently at least one was published under a different title in the UK, Choking Wolf (Urgency Emergency).

Huff & Puff - a review

Rueda, Claudia. 2012. Huff & Puff: Can you blow down the houses of the three little pigs? New York: Abrams.

I was going to include this in a picture book roundup, but it's just so cute that it's going to get its own post.

Though traditional folk and fairy tales are part of our shared culture, it's difficult to find a version simple enough to share with toddlers in a meaningful way.  Huff & Puff makes this look easy.  With  sparse and straightforward text (only one line per plain white page),

First pig building a house.

First pig inside the house.

One wolf huffing and puffing,

and delightfully innocent-looking pigs, you'd think that Huff & Puff couldn't get any better.  But wait, there's more.  Each time the wolf comes along, the reader is presented with the wall of the house (straw, stick and brick) and a hole for, you guessed it, huffing and puffing!  The reader is the wolf! All the illustrations are drawn with a wolf's-eye view, including the birthday cake with candles that awaits the wolf on the final page.

Three pigs and one wolf are happy.

Awww.


This book is an offering from Abrams' new imprint, Abrams Appleseed. 

Advance Reader Copy provided by the publisher.

Read the Kirkus review here.

Oh why didn't I look at this one yesterday before I did a pig-themed storytime?

Back-to-School picture book roundup

Many school-related picture books have arrived on my desk in the last week or two, but these are the only two I've really liked. 

Milgrim, David. 2011. Eddie Gets Ready for School. New York: Cartwheel (Scholastic).

David Milgrim has a real flair for simplicity.  I've never reviewed them, but his Ready-to-Read books featuring Pip and Otto are my favorites for very early readers.  Eddie Gets Ready for School is not an easy reader, but it's masterful in its simplicity.  It's nothing more than a checked-off list, one or two items per page, of all the things Eddie "needs" to do before school,

Put cat in backpack
Hug Mom
Take cat out of backpack
Find something else for show & tell

Some items (Eddie choosing in turn, the dog, goldfish, bird, and flat screen TV for show & tell), don't make the written list and are expressed only in the crisply drawn cartoon images on white space.  Mom and the dog are featured throughout the story.  Mom is happy and supportive, although root beer and cartoons for breakfast does try her patience a bit. So what does Eddie finally choose for a snack and show & tell?  You'll never guess!  This is a very funny back-to-school gem!



Murray, Laura. 2011. The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. Ill. by Mike Lowery. New York: Putnam.

This gingerbread man is not running away as fast he can; he's running to catch up!  The children have cooked him up at school but, oh no! He's left behind when it's time for recess, but he's a smart cookie.  He'll find them,

I'll run and I'll run,
as fast as I can.
I can catch them! I'm their
Gingerbread Man!

Along the way, he loses a toe,

I'll limp and I'll limp,
as fast as I can. ...

and almost ends up as someone's snack,

I plopped on a sandwich
and chips with a crunch
OH NO! I cried out.
I'm in somebody's lunch!

 The story is told entirely in rhyme and presented comic style with panels and word bubbles. Cute and simple.  Kids will eat this one up.

Librarians will want to remove the poster before circulating this one.  Teachers will want to hang it in the classroom.

Author Laura Murray's website has some great Gingerbread Man extras - and a RT script coming soon!

Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood

Artell, Mike. 2001. Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood. Ill. by Jim Harris. New York: Penguin.

While I was in New Orleans, I attended the 8th Annual Poetry Blast sponsored by ALSC. As I mentioned on the ALSC blog, one of the highlights of the evening was Mike Artell's reading of his book Petite Rouge.  Of all the fractured folktales that I've ever heard, this has got to be one of my all-time favorites! Hearing it in New Orleans, in Cajun country, made it that much better. I went down to the French Quarter and purchased a copy the very next morning.

In Artell's version, Petite Rouge and her cat set off in a pirouge (a small boat used with a pole to travel the bayous) to grand-mère's house, carrying homemade gumbo. 

In the swamp, she runs into a wily gator named Claude,

Dey don' be gone long
when dey see by a stomp,
a big, long, green log
dat got plenty a' bomp.

Dat log it come close
to de pirouge and say,
"Now what you two doin' out here ...
si'l vous plait?"

It was Claude, dat ol' gator.
Petite Rouge gotta honch
dat ol' Claude t'inkin' he'd
like to have her fo' lunch.

Petite Rouge uses her pole to get away, but old Claude catches up with her at grandma's house, with very funny results involving TeJean, the cat, and a bottle of Cajun hot sauce.

It's hard to say what's funnier - the story, or Jim Harris' detailed and expressive illustrations.

© Jim Harris

  www.jimharrisillustrator.com

For a real treat, or some pronunciation help, you can download or listen to mp3 files of Mike Artell reading Petite Rouge here. His narration is flawlessly funny!

Also, be sure to check out illustrator Jim Harris' site for some backstory, photos of bayou homes that inspired Petite Rouge's, and preliminary drawings for the book.

Included in the book is a brief history of Cajun people and a glossary of unfamiliar words with their phonetic spellings as well.
Great fun!  Perfect for sharing with all ages!  With some practice, I think I'll be able to read this one on school visits.

Finally! The Little Red Pen: a review

Stevens, Janet. 2011. The Little Red Pen. Ill. by Susan Stevens Crummel. Boston: Harcourt Childrens.

Finally!  I've been dying to get my hands on this book ever since I saw it during a spring preview webinar!  It was worth the wait.

You know the story of the industrious Little Red Hen, you know, the one who planted the seeds, raised the wheat, milled the flour, and baked the bread without any help from her lazy friends?  Well, look out, 'cause here comes the desk set version -  the Little Red Pen with her similarly unhelpful friends, Eraser, Pencil, Highlighter, Scissors, Stapler and Señorita Chincheta (don't you dare call her Pushpin!) - and they've got papers to grade! But unlike the traditional story, this Little Red Pen can't do it all on her own.  She's collapsed from exhaustion and fallen into  "The Pit of No Return!" (aka "The Trash")

With puns

"I have another bright idea," said Highlighter.

"What? Me, a bridge?" Ruler snapped. "I'm not budging an inch."

jokes,

She's pushing!  Well, I'm a pushpin! 

and hilarious artwork, The Little Red Pen makes a point and gets an A+ in the grade book!

Written and illustrated by siblings, Janet and Susan, it must have been a lot of fun!
An Activity Kit is available from the publisher.

Highly recommended!