Review by Booklist Review
Ages 4-6. Zemach serves up a delicious edition of the old tale, making no concessions to vegetarian tastes: the wolf eats the first two pigs, the third pig eats wolf soup, justice prevails, and children are treated to a wholly satisfying version of this traditional fare. The well-cadenced prose minces no words, but leaves the storyteller opportunities for dramatic seasoning in the interpretation. Portraying scenes and characters in lively line drawings washed with muted autumn colors, Zemach creates artwork as direct, immediate, and captivating as the folktale itself. Without disrupting the action for a moment, she includes visual details that underscore the main themes. For example, during his duel of wits with the third pig, the once gentlemanly wolf gradually loses his fine clothes as his anger grows and his bestial nature emerges. While very young children may be confused by the occasional multiple images of characters on a double-page spread, older youngsters should accept this convention with ease. A fine new interpretation of an age-old favorite. -- Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Purists will appreciate this grisly version of the classic tale. There's no running to the safety of the third pig's brick house for little pigs one and two in this version. Here, when the wolf blows down their homes, he eats their inhabitants``Yumm-yum!'' Caldecott Medal-winner Zemach's robust, earth-toned rendering includes the wolf's efforts to trick the third pig into coming out of the house before he finally climbs down the brick chimney: ``That night, the third little pig had wolf soup for supper. Yumm-Yum!'' With unquestionable artistry, her final illustration depicts the third pig at his humble table, tucking into his stew, bones strewn at his feet and a fluffy wolf tail poking out of the stew pot. Adults accustomed to toned-down, cleaned-up versions of this story may have trouble with that kind of graphic depiction, but children, who tend to digest fairy tale violence with ease, will probably relish this volume. Michael di Capua Books. Ages 3-up. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--The Three Little Pigs joins the gallery of newly-illustrated folk and fairy tales that have glutted the market in recent years. At least this version is refined. True to her style, Zemach uses distinctive wispy watercolor strokes to illustrate the story. In this version, the pigs get eaten and stay that way; and after the wolf tries to trick the third pig (with turnips, apples, and the fair), he is cooked in a pot of soup. The characters sport old-fashioned garb, with the pigs in tattered clothes and the wolf in a tailored jacket and top hat. Some of Zemach's interpretations are practical, interesting, and ironic: the wolf has his coat off, draped on his arm, just before he's going to lunge down the chimney. The jump itself is shown in a progressive motion to show the force of the leap. And the final page shows the surviving pig smiling, having his soup, surrounded by a bowl of apples, a basket of turnips, and a souvenir of the wolf--his tail in the pot. An additional item for collections in which another version of this tale is needed. --Marianne Pilla, formerly at Long Beach Public Library, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The subtitle here points up the jacket's assertion that Zemach's retelling has ""none of the softening or sweetening that has become commonplace with this story."" True: the outlines and most of the phrasing in Jacobs' quintessential version are intact. Unfortunately, however, where Zemach diverges from Jacobs she fails to improve his spare, pungent text. Her added phrases dilute impact, simplifications sacrifice specificity (no more ""Mr. Smith's home field"" or ""Merry Garden""), and modernizations jar (the ""momma pig"" weeps when she sends her young forth, warning them about the wolf; the wolf says ""Yumm-yum!"" when he eats the first two pigs). The butter churn has become a barrel. Wolf and third pig meet at mid-morning, not at dawn. No big deal, any of this, but ""if it ain't broke, why fix it?"" On the other hand, Zemach's illustrations catch the story's humor, her vigorous black line ably defining nuances of character, her soft watercolors subtly blended. Leslie Brooke's illustrations are still unsurpassed, but these are also satisfactory. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
