(Listen to the podcast review)

The Three Pigs
By David Weisner

The postmodern picture book and a slew of storytelling possibilities raises its playful snout in David Weisner's 2001 book, The Three Pigs. Readers of Weisner's other wonderful book, Tuesday, may recognize the trio of pigs at the heart of this story, which seems to fold in on itself at various times with unexpected pleasures.
Weisner is one of those artists who don't seem content with the traditional confines of the picture book format. He uses illustrations to widen the lens of the story and topple down any expectations you might have had about the three little pigs and their houses and what happens when a hungry wolf bangs on their door.
The book begins simple enough, with the three pigs and their sticks, and straw and brick. Along comes the wolf, who knocks at the door with the familiar "little pig, little pig, let me come in." But the wolf's breath is more powerful than even he supposes, and the huffing and puffing not only knocks down the fragile house of straw. It blows the little pig right out of the story itself.
The wolf, confused, scratches his head and moves on to the second pig house.
Before more huffing and puffing can happen, the first pig has crawled in between frames of the picture book and offers his brother a safe exit from oncoming danger. Again, the confused wolf comes up empty.
The reader, meanwhile, watches this shifting narrative unfold as the wolf is caught in the traditional story and the pigs are off on a very modern adventure just outside the story itself.
The third brother is also rescued and the swines make their escape on a paper airplane created out of folded up pages of the story that they just left.
For four full double pages, the pigs soar about on their storybook airplane that Weisner has set against a backdrop of pristine white nothingness. The reader can't help but notice that one of the pigs seems to be looking right our way. And sure enough, after a light crash landing, one of the pigs moves to the edge of the book's page and sticks his snout up close in the reader's direction, saying: "I think ... someone's out there."
Yes, you want to say, we are out here. And we are rooting for you.
The adventure continues as the pigs crawl into two other stories: the Mother Goose rhyme of Hey Diddle Diddle (and the curious cat follows the pigs out the rhyme) and a traditional story of a prince slaying a dragon, except the pigs show the dragon an escape route out of the adventure before the prince arrives on his deadly quest to slay the beast.
The animals then decide to reconstruct the pigs' storybook and invite the cat and the dragon back to the third pig's house. It is at that very moment that the wolf has arrived, about to huff and puff again. Suddenly, extending its neck right out of the front door, the dragon shows his huge head, scattering all of the letters of the text on the page. The wolf runs for it and the pigs collect all of the letters that falling like raindrops in a hat.
The story ends with the pigs, the cat and the dragon enjoying a nice bowl of soup.
Alphabet soup, of course.
Weisner's story is easy to digest even as he breaks down our expectations of what to expect between the pages of a picture book.