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.

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

If you check my LibraryThing account, you'll see that I have 15 books tagged "pigs," and those are just a few of my favorites.  Sometimes I even have a pig-themed storytime. Here's another book of preposterous porcine protagonists to add to my list of favorites!


Teague, Mark. 2013. The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf. New York: Scholastic.

(review copy provided by publisher)

The three comically large, anthropomorphic pigs are painted with Mark Teague's signature bold colors and droll style. They are as humorous as the story itself. The opening double-spread finds two pigs in their pen, playing basketball in a pile of mud, surrounded by empty soda bottles and scattered potato chips. A third pig, also in the pen, is seated in an armchair reading a book, a neatly chewed apple next to him on a smartly appointed white tablecloth.  All three pigs look toward the farmer,

Once there were three little pigs.  They lived on a farm, as most pigs do, and were happy, as most pigs are. Then one day the farmer told them that he and his wife were moving to Florida.  He paid the pigs for their good work and sent 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 characters loom large on double-spread, full-bleed illustrations, making this a perfect book to share with a group. Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs may be the standard bearer for fractured folk tales, but The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf is a worthy addition to the canon of "Three Little Pig" tales. Great fun!

Picture Book Roundup - Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done!

Silly, dreamy, fun, well-done  - these are my favorites today!

• Silly

Harrington, Tim. 2013. This Little Piggy. New York: Harper Collins.

Funny and silly, this is the story of what those other five little piggies are doing - forget about going to market or eating roast beef; these little piggies are painting, selling hot dogs, dancing and flying planes!

Browse inside This Little Piggy.

Click to hear the author's musical rendition of 
This Little Piggy.  You can download it, too!

• Dreamy

Giovanna Zoboli. 2013. I Wish I Had .... Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.  (Ill. by Simona Mulazzani)

A simple wish list  - one wish on each beautifully illustrated, double-spread page of this over-sized book.  Inspired by the animal kingdom, each wish is for an animal's ability,

I wish I had the quick heart of a mouse as it makes its escape ...

... and the wings of a wild goose on the day it takes flight. 

Perhaps it rhymes in its original Italian version.  No matter - it's still poetic and beautiful.

The link to a preview of I Wish I Had ... may be accessed here.

• Fun

Gibbs, Edward. I Spy on the Farm. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

I loved I Spy With My Little Eye when it was published in 2011, and I love Edward Gibbs' I Spy on the Farm as well.  Perfect for participatory sharing, kids will squeal out the answers as they look through the die-cut holes and hear the clues,

I spy with my little eye ...

 something pink that begins with a P.

Oink, oink!

Colors, letters, farm animal sounds - I Spy on the Farm has it all!

I Spy on the Farm preview here.

• Well-done

Falwell, Cathryn. 2013. Rainbow Stew. New York: Lee and Low.

Whimper, sigh, cloudy, sky,
Is it too wet to play?
We don't want to stay inside
because of rain today.

Grandpa smiles and says to us,
"I know what we can do.
Let's go and find some colors
for my famous Rainbow Stew!" 

Filled with love and frolicking fun, Rainbow Stew is a tasty delight! (Be sure to try the recipe)

Rainbow Stew preview here.
Rainbow Stew activities here!


If you're looking for the usual nonfiction post this morning, check out Sally's Bookshelf for today's Nonfiction Monday roundup.  Next week, Nonfiction Monday will be right here at Shelf-employed.  

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?

Mercy Watson to the Rescue - a review

Dicamillo, Kate. 2006. The Mercy Watson Collection: Volume 1. Read by Ron McLarty. Listening Library.
41 minutes

Last week, I was about ready to leave for work when I realized that I had nothing loaded on my mp3 player for the commute. (I have neglected to mention it here, but in January, I traded in my bicycle commute to return to my previous branch) In any case, I began frantically searching my library’s available downloads for something that would load quickly and keep me entertained during my drive to work.

My choice? Mercy Watson. Despite the book's irresistibly cute cover art, I’d never read a Mercy Watson book before.  I thought it was about time. And anyway, how can you go wrong with Kate Dicamillo? 

Answer:  You can't.

Despite the loss of Chris Van Dusen’s charmingly funny artwork featured in the print version, Mercy Watson still "clicks" as an audiobook.  Upbeat intro music sets the stage and Ron McLarty's narration is a perfect fit, with kind of a retro feel to it - as if you're listening to a favorite old story that you've heard a thousand times before.  (It's hard to believe that he's also the voice of books by David Baldacci, Danielle Steel and Stephen King!)

However, the best thing about Mercy Watson to the Rescue (the first book in the series), is Mercy herself.  She may be a pig, but she's an awful lot like most children - when sent to find help to rescue her parents, she quickly forgets her mission and goes instead, in search of buttered toast!  And when chased by mean neighbor, Eugenia, Mercy waits until Eugenia's good and close before she starts running.  After all, it's all about the chase, isn't it?  Mercy is simply delightful.  I'm sorry I waited so long to find her.

What else do I love about the book? 

- that calling the fire department is the solution of choice when one's bed has collapsed (I'm rather partial to firefighters, having married one and all)
- that Mercy's parents adore her unconditionally

Here's an excerpt.  Enjoy!

Note:
One thing I found particularly amusing is the choice of Eugenia as the name for the neighbor. When my children were little, the girls were very fond of Laura McGee Kvasnosky's Zelda and Ivy books. When their brother was old enough to read, they introduced him to the books, directing him to read the part of Eugene, the boy next door. Can any name other than Aloysius be more difficult to pronounce phonetically? My son promptly declared the name to be Ignoo, and could never be dissuaded from his chosen pronunciation. No telling what he might have made of Eugenia!

Picture Book Roundup - funny bone ticklers

It's been a while since I've done a picture book round-up.  Here are few guaranteed gigglers for a variety of ages.

Long, Ethan. 2012. Up! Tall! and High!. New York: Penguin.

Featuring three simply drawn, brightly-colored birds, Up! Tall! and High! (but not necessarily in that order) is a hoot. With vocabulary simple enough for a very beginning reader or a book for toddlers, the three birds contemplate their sizes and abilities with a dry humor reminiscent of Ten Apples Up on Top.  Punchlines in the three 8-page "chapters," are delivered visually - with foldouts, facial expressions or sight gags. Cute!

Vail, Rachel. 2012. Piggy Bunny. Ill. by Jeremy Tankard. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

With an opening setup like this, how can Piggy Bunny not be funny?

Liam was just like all the other piglets except for one thing.  All the other piglets wanted to be pigs when they grew up.  Liam wanted to be the Easter Bunny.
  

Even though "salad remained a challenge," Liam believed in himself, and so did his grandpa, and so will you!  The story is hilarious, and Jeremy Tankard's "ink and digital media" illustrations are a perfectly droll complement to a very funny story.

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse. 2012. Chopsticks. Ill. by Scott Magoon. New York: Disney Hyperion.

If you were a fan of Spoon (and who wasn't?), you'll love Chopsticks,  "Not exactly a sequel to Spoon.  More like a change in place setting."

I'm a sucker for puns, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal knows how to set them in their place. With shocked utensils watching,  the unfortunate Chopstick snaps.  The stunned assemblage watched as Chopstick

was quickly whisked away. 

(Cue the earnest whisk, racing for the doctor with the snapped  utensil cradled in his wires.)

The others all waited quietly.  No one stirred, not even Spoon.

(Yes, our dear friend, Spoon, pictured here in the medicine chest being comforted by a bandage.)

But not to worry!  Things will work out for the best.  Perhaps there will even be a call for a toast (with butter!) before this story's ended.   Irresistible!


and to wrap things up, some laughs for a slightly older crowd ...

Catalanott, Peter. 2012. Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All.  New York: Simon & Schuster.

Question Boy - perhaps you've known one.  If so, you can imagine this conversation,

"What are you doing?" Question Boy asked.
"I'm filling a tank with oil so the people who live here will have hot water and heat when they need it."
"Can I see the tank?"
"There, my work here is finished," Oil Man said.  "What? No, you can't see the tank.  It's in the basement.  Even I've never seen it."
"How do you know it's there?  What if someone took the tank for a drive?"
"Ah!" Oil Man said.  "It's not an army tank!"
"How do you know if you've never seen it?"

And perhaps you've known a Little Miss Know-It-All as well,

"Kangaroos can't walk backward!" Ketchup was once sold as a medicine!  A giraffe can clean its ears with its tongue! Hummingbirds can weigh less than a penny! ..."

Now, imagine what happens in the park when Question Boy goes head-to-head with Little Miss Know-It-All!  It's the quest for knowledge vs. knowledge itself. Question mark vs. exclamation point. Boy vs. girl.  Which will win?  You'll have to read it to find out!

(just be sure to read the back jacket for an important footnote that should have been included within the book's pages)

Enjoy!

May picture book roundup

I am in the midst of transferring from one branch to another, and I now have two desks overflowing with great new books!  Here are a few:

Gibbs, Edward. 2011. I Spy with my Little Eye. Somerville, MA: Templar. (Candlewick)

That big (almost 2.5"), yellow, circular eye on the cover is actually a hole - an oh, the things we can spy through that hole!  On a predominantly white spread with an eye on the left page and a circle of blue on the right, we read,

I spy with my little eye  ... something that is blue. "I am the biggest animal in the world."

Turn the page to find a richly colored blue whale, which due to some artfully placed curlicues, manages to appear realistic and at the same time, fanciful.

I'm a BLUE WHALE.

Each featured animal unfolds in the same manner.  The rear cover of the book features a hole for your own little eye to go spying! Colors, animals, guessing - this book has it all!
Edward Gibbs is listed as a "debut artist."  What a debut! This one's dynamite!

Tusa, Tricia. 2011. Follow Me. Boston: Harcourt.

From the book jacket, here is the description of the art,

The illustrations in this book were done using an etching process with monoprinted color.  The text type was set in Prin.  The display type was set in Rats and Carrotflower.

(Rats and Carrotflower? - love that one!)  What this means to me is a softly-colored book with fanciful drawings outlined in etched brown lines.  The color sometimes spills out of its intended (?) perimeter in much the same way that the young protagonist spills out of her swing and floats and flies through the breezes, "lost in small, green, happy music."  She invites the reader to follow her through all of nature's colors, "deep into brown, into the bright white of yellow, into orange that slips into red."   From the illustrator of In a Blue Room, another beautiful book!


Johnson, Lindsay Lee. 2011. Ten Moonstruck Piglets. Ill. by Carll Cneut. Boston: Clarion.

All in a scramble,
all ready to gambol,
ten moonstruck piglets
on a midnight ramble.

Through the mud wallow,
beyond the wide hollow,
leapfrogging piglets
in turns lead and follow.

It's all fun and games until the moon goes behind a cloud!  But not to worry - Mama's coming.  These sleepy-eyed, wrinkly little runts are irresistible!

Where Ten Little Piglets is filled with amusing detail, this next book features uncomplicated simplicity ... (but in both books, you can count on mom to the rescue!)