Fairytales

According to A. Wolf, this is the “real” story of “The Three Little Pigs.” From prison (where he is serving time for his alleged crimes), Wolf relates his side of this famous story. The whole hullabaloo started because he had a cold and needed a cup of sugar for his dear granny’s birthday cake. While trying to borrow some from his neighbor in the straw house, he sneezed so hard that he blew down the house and killed the First Little Pig. “It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw,” says A. Wolf. “So I ate it up.” History repeats itself a second time, but before it can happen a third time, the police haul him away. Wolf claims that the real story was so unexciting that the reporters jazzed it up with all that “I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down” stuff. Enjoy more of Scieszka and Smith’s revisionist storytelling with The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales! (Penguin, 1992).

Whatley’s pigs build their houses out of straw, sticks, and bricks. So far, readers are led to expect a familiar story. But when the first little pig finishes building his house, he hears a splash followed by a mysterious voice saying, “Oops! I spilled my juice.” Now the pig’s new straw house is soggy and sticky and soon collapses. The book’s illustrator is messing up the story! Then the clumsy illustrator runs out of red paint. The three pale pigs undergo all kinds of color changes until they can’t take it anymore — and demand to get out of the story!