The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

Title: The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig
Author: Eugene Trivizas
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury
Genre: Folktale

Summary
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig is a different variation of the original fairy-tale The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. One day the mother of the three little wolves tells her children to go out into the world and to build a house for themselves, but she tells them to beware of the big bad pig. The wolves go out and build three houses of the strongest building materials they can find. The first house they build is out of brick, but the pig smashes this house to pieces with a sledgehammer. The second house they build is made of concrete; however, the pig destroys this house with a pneumatic drill and smashes the house down. The third house they build is made out of barbed wire, iron bars, armor plates, and heavy metal padlocks, but once again the pig destroys the house by blowing it up with dynamite. At this point, the three little wolves are frustrated and try to think of what they could build the next house out of. They decide to build a fragile house made out of flowers. The big bad pig falls in love with the scent of the flowers. The smell of the flowers made his heart grow tender and made him realize how horrible he had been. In the end, the three little wolves and the big bad pig became friends.

Classroom Connection
I believe students would be interested in comparing several different versions of this fairytale and seeing the differences among them. This would get students more deeply involved in the texts and would help them to start recognizing the different variations of each story. After comparing the different versions of the fairytale, students could create their own rendition of this specific fairytale.