The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury I’ve read this one to Ani, who is obsessed with it, at least a dozen or more times this month, and I still giggle to myself every time the wolf blows down the second house and mumbles to himself, “I still can’t believe that worked!” Of course, this wolf isn’t so bad – he’s just so hungry, he’s having a hard time behaving himself. The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf by Mark Teague And when you find yourself saving a dragon from death by a knight, well, what else is there to do but bring that dragon back to scare off the wolf? This is his second of three Caldecott wins and I love that when the big bad wolf huffs and puffs, it blows the pigs right off the pages of the story and into the white space of the book, where they’re able to enter and exit other stories at will. I am such an enormous fan of David Wiesner. Ella walked in while I was looking at this one on the computer screen and she said, “Oh, I love that one.” She’s not alone – we’re all big fans. The big, eye-catching illustrations are perfectly matched by the snappy rhyming text. What is it about ninjas that are so appealing right now? Who knows, but this team is making a good little career out of stories based on it, with this one followed by Ninja Red Riding Hood and then Hensel and Gretel: Ninja Chicks. The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat Jon Sciszka and Lane Smith really are a power duo. I was delighted by the familiar story told from the wolf’s point of view and his assertion that he’d been unfairly incarcerated when all he’d been trying to do was borrow a cup of sugar from his porcine neighbors so he could make a cake for his grandmother’s birthday. This was probably the first version of a fairy tale retelling I was introduced to, back when I was maybe 11 or 12 and my grandmother gave us a copy of this one.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

The three little ninja pigs