The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs
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''The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!'' is a children's book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Released in a number of editions since its first release by Viking Kestrel, an imprint of Viking Penguin in 1989, it is a parody of The Three Little Pigs as told by the Big Bad Wolf, known in the book as "A. Wolf", short for "Alexander T. Wolf". The book was honored by the American Library Association as an
ALA Notable Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...
.Molly Dunham Glassman. "Writing team creates comedy for children", ''Baltimore Sun'', reprinted in ''Cedar Rapids Gazette'', October 18, 1992, page 2F.


Plot

This story starts with a wolf named Alexander T. introducing himself, claiming that the story everyone knows is wrong, and that he was unjustly framed. He tells it from his perspective: he was making a cake for his grandmother but ran out of sugar and didn't have enough money to buy more. He then tries to ask one of his neighbors for a cup of sugar, a pig (which is the first little pig), whom he accidentally killed due to his sneezing knocking down his house. The first pig (who was in the straw house) was not in, while the second pig (who was in the stick house) was "shaving the hairs on his chinny chin-chin". The wolf then eats the pig, then he tries to ask the second pig whom he accidentally kills too. He then asks the final pig (who had a whole sack full of sugar). The third pig (who may have heard his brothers being eaten alive, and thus assumes Alexander is now after him too) talks impolite to him. (The third pig had a giant sack full of sugar and wouldn't give Alexander one little cup of sugar for his "dear sweet granny's birthday cake".) Alexander then goes insane after the pig insults his grandmother. Policemen pigs heard about the news and accused Alexander of causing havoc (mainly due to the fact that the reporters felt a story about a wolf with a sneezing cold looking for sugar was too boring). Then Alexander is taken captive and is sentenced to ten thousand years in pig prison (that is, for the destruction of the pigs's houses --murder of the first two and attempted murder of the third-- and the attempted sugar robbery). At the end, the wolf suggests that maybe the reader would loan him a cup of sugar.


Critical reception

Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by '' School Library Journal''.


Adaptation

This book was later adapted into a
Weston Woods Studios Weston Woods Studios (or simply Weston Woods) is a production company that makes audio and short films based on well-known books for children. It was founded in 1953 by Morton Schindel in Weston, Connecticut, and named after the wooded area near h ...
animated short in 2008 with Paul Giamatti as the wolf.


See also

* '' The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig'', another inverted version of the story


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!, The 1989 children's books American children's books American picture books Parody books Fairy tale parodies Big Bad Wolf Picture books based on fairy tales Works based on The Three Little Pigs Books about pigs Books about wolves Fiction with unreliable narrators Viking Press books