In the book The Three Pigs I thought the author was clever in some ways but then in other ways not so much. A lot of children would just love to read this kind of book. In a way I thought that there was too much going on in the pictures I felt that I got lost in all the illustrations I was trying to think like a child would think and when I was doing this I felt a little lost... The author jumped around a lot. In my eyes there was like three different stories just in this one book. I was very confused when the author put the nursery rhyme in the book I was like okay? The rhyme didn’t really fit. I think? This type of book I would say is kind of post modern I think? Because you can take you own way through it and make you own idea about the pictures. Which is good because this book is more of a challenge so if you believe the child is up for the task then this is the perfect book. I still like this book very much, I just think the picture have a lot going on.
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I felt the same way. When I first read the book, I was expecting to read a traditional three little pigs story, however, I soon found that Wiesner created a fractured folktale around the three little pigs motif that was in a postmodern format. I found this interesting: in an interview, Wiesner said, “You know if you were one of the first two pigs in that story, and every time it was read you got eaten, wouldn’t you have a little incentive to want to get out of that story?” (http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/wiesner/interviews/inter.html) I think this quote represents the way that Wiesner feels about literature. He enjoys playing around with the characters and art to make the story more abstract. While I think that most children would enjoy this type of book, I found it confusing as an adult. I really just wanted to read a three little pigs story that was similar to the books I read as a child. But, children, who have vivid imaginations might enjoy pretending that the pigs are in another story, flying on a paper airplane, or having individual dialogue outside of the story. It was not my favorite book, but maybe it is just because I have been trained to like a certain type of books by more traditional books.
I have to disagree with you. I loved the pictures and I think the author was very clever with illustrations, and lack of illustrations, throughout the book. The illustrations, to me, were the pigs escaping their traditional, over-told story, and venturing and exploring other stories. In their adventure they found other over-told stories or nursery rhymes—that is how I interpret Hey Diddle Diddle fitting into the story. With this connection, I do not think the illustrations are too complex or confusing in any sense. I also thought it was interesting to see the pigs change shape/originality as they entered new worlds. Furthermore, I think the picture book really examined the pigs’ point of view through the illustrations. And on a side note, their imagination in general was fun to read and follow.
I do agree with you that this picture book can be classified as post-modern.
Agreeing with Hadley, I loved the illustrator's depiction of the pigs. The fact that they can escape their traditional story, now throws a new idea into the child's world- a conception of metafiction: fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to the relationship between fiction and reality. The pigs escape their fiction into... our reality? I think this can work on a child's imagination- especially if discussed with a parent or teacher. When the pigs fly out of their story on a paper plane, into a white abyss, it lets your imagination float along with them. You are seeing the world through the pig's perspective, becoming one yourself. It's a new take on the folklore story so familiarly known as the Three Little Pigs. It is confusing, but it presents a challenge for the reader in general, specifically, the child. Maybe we find it confusing as adults because we've lost the precious skill of imagination while performing a task which has become quite traditional and straight forward to us.
I also agree it is post-modern, but more specifically, metafiction.
Maybe I'm biased, because I am a huge fan of postmodern literature, but I have to disagree with you also. It was a really interesting idea to let the pigs take control of their own destiny in this version of the story, and what better way to fully demonstrate this but by having the pigs literally escape from the story, and do whatever they want to it?
I am surprised by all the backlash this book is getting. Two of my friends read it, and they both did not like it at all. I definitely want to ask them exactly WHY they didn't like it - maybe they see the book the same way you did!
I also felt that the pictures within the Three Little Pigs were a bit overwhelming. On pages 3 and 5 when the first two pigs leave the original story line the illustrations are still clear about what is going on. When looking at page 7 where they are moving the frames of the original story around it becomes more a visual chaos. It becomes a little confusing what text you should find important on this page. Although I find the following pages very interesting, they become somewhat more complicated. Postmodern books are meant to challenge the idea of a picture book. The Three Pigs definitely does this. Although I don’t dislike this book, it wasn’t more favorite picture book because of the confusion in the illustrations.
I felt the same exact way as everyone else. I was reading it and was expecting the same story line as the original three pigs and lets just say that that definitely wasn't the case. I was reading a story and then all of a sudden it just completely changed gears. It was a little confusing and the story just turned into something I wasn't interested in anymore. The book just showed pictures with minimal words. I am big on words and following a story that way.
Following a story through pictures without any text has never been something I have liked doing. I enjoy reading the words and interpreting the story that way. Having pictures only confuses me, which is exactly what it does in this book.
I ended up enjoying the story a little bit still but it wasn't my favorite picturebook. Nonetheless, it was an interesting book to read and a fun read. I can't say that I obtained as much information out of it like I do with most books but I still enjoyed myself.
I respect your opinion but i will have to disagree with you on this. The Three Pigs is a graphic novel which lets the reader jsut enjoy the pictures and go along for the ride. It lets you as the reader jump into the sotry along with the characters just like the pigs jumping into other stories in the book. As a child I loved pictures in books and would just love to stare at them and just be overwhelmed by them. Wiesner lets children jump into their imagination through reading just like when they use thier imagination when they are playing on the playground. A children's book like this doesn't contain much reading but it does help the child grow intellectually. The child could explain to his or her teacher what is going on in the story. A regular children's story with reads will tell the story for you. A graphic book like this can maybe have many angles to it from my children in your classroom. Weisner has won many awards for his wordless picture books and I think they bring about a new world for children everywhere to enjoy. They make reading with our minds a lot of fun.
Yea when reading The Three Little Pigs I definitely thought the pictures had a lot going on. I actually liked it though because it was kind of like I did not need the text there to understand what was going on. So I found it to be helpful to me when reading. Personally I thought that the story was not to confusing with the pictures jumping around it was very creative and artistic. I think that the pictures make it a more favored book because of how neat they are and how they just look as picture. I agree with Carolyn about this version of the book. I thought it was really cool that the pigs could get out of their element. I mean as some of you mentioned that you thought it was going to be an ordinary three pig’s story and it wasn’t. Doesn’t changing this up make it more fun and interesting. I got the idea that it was trying to say not everyone’s path is told that you can change it. So for me the picture not only helped me follow that story but also gave kind of a message about life in general.
I am disagree with you, I think the excellence of this book is the meaningful illustrations. I don't think there sre too many pictures or stories because I think it is the author's purpose to have a crowded illustration in every pages, therefore the reader could discover more after the first reading, because there might be some details that they didn't paid attention on when read this book at the first time. and this makes the book more redable( people can read this book more than 3 times without feeling bored).
On the other hand, childrens always pay more attention on the illustration than adult, so they may discover more thing out of the picture than we do, I think this is a funny way to train kids and develope their curiousities.
More over, what I found intresting is this book allow you to kind of play and discover along with the journey. If you pay attetion at the illustration in the story when they go in to the dragon's story, the back part, all those pictures and pages beside them are actually the story from the author's other book (like the Flotsam and etc.) I think this connection is really funny, eapeacially for children, because not like us (we usually just read the picture book once) kids tends to have more frequency in reading the same book. The more complex and funny the book is, it will becomes more readable.
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