The 3 Little Dassies (Module 2)

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brett, Jan. 2010. The 3 Little Dassies. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN: 9780399254994.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
The three little dassies go out to build for themselves homes, with their hope being to be find “a place safe from big eagles.” They find a spot that looks good, and even though the Agama Man (lizard) mentions the eagles nearby, they decide to build. The first builds with grass and then takes a nap, the second with driftwood and then takes a nap, but the third takes all day to build her sturdy house of stone. The next morning the eagle easily destroys the first two houses and carries the dassies back up to his nest. He cannot get to the third dassie because of her sturdy home, but after he realizes that his first two dassies are gone (rescued by a lizard), he even tries the chimney. In the end, the three dassies are no longer ever bothered by the eagle again because his singed tail feathers have blackened all eagle feathers from then on. The final page reveals Brett's retelling to be a pourquoi tale explaining the lives of the dassies, the lizard, and the eagle.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Brett’s African version of “The Three Little Pigs” was inspired by her own trip to Namibia. The culture does comes through in the writing by the names that she chooses but shines through the most through her illustrations. In the author's note, we find the Brett gave the dassies the dresses and turbans of the Herero women and used elements of Africa within her story. The result is a delightful combination of African vibrancy and the traditional look of Brett's illustrations.

Brett delightfully tailors the story to her African characters. For example, the traditional “huff and puff” line is changed for an eagle with, “I’ll flap and I’ll clap and I’ll blow your house in!”. All the characters end up alive and well at the end, thanks to the lizard saving the dassies and the eagle only getting a color change through the singeing of its feathers. As usual with many of Brett’s illustrations, the side illustrations push the story along. The daring rescue of the lizard happens entirely on the sides of the main illustrations. I’ll admit I was so focused on the main panels that I only caught him halfway through the act and had to go back to look again.

The traditional moral of not being lazy is retained as the first two dassies are caught by the eagle due to their laziness in not building homes out of sturdier materials (shown through the desire to build quickly and then take a nap). A secondary moral of not being greedy is also incorporated as the book mentions the eagle’s greed in trying to capture all three dassies.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Horn Book review: “Brett uses an eye-catching variety of multicolored patterns.”
• Kirkus review: “Brett uses her magical watercolor-and-gouache paintings to create a distinctive visual world.”
• Publishers Weekly review: “A buoyant and original reimagining.”
• School Library Journal review: “This tale will captivate children and introduce a setting and animals unfamiliar to most of them.”

5. CONNECTIONS

• Brett’s website provides many activities, including coloring pages, email postcards, computer games, and reader’s theater scripts. This book has a reader’s theater script that could be used as a great follow-up: http://www.janbrett.com/3_little_dassies_reader_theater.htm
• Get your readers familiar with Jan Brett’s style by looking at more of her books. Recommended ones are The Mitten; Town Mouse, Country Mouse; Armadillo Rodeo; and The Umbrella.
• Other familiar traditional tales set in Africa:
  


Isadora, Rachel. The Princess and the Pea. ISBN: 9780142413937

Steptoe, John. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. ISBN: 9780688040451

Daly, Nikki. Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story. ISBN: 9780618723454

The Three Pigs (Module 2)

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wiesner, David. 2001. The Three Pigs. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 0618007016

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Starting out as a traditional telling of “The Three Little Pigs,” this book soon shows that it's actually a fractured retelling when the first pig gets blown out of the illustration by the big bad wolf. Following that, the three pigs all leave the story on a paper airplane (made from a page of their own story) and find themselves in a storybook world with pages of stories everywhere. The pigs venture through “Hey Diddle Diddle” and a fairy tale, picking up the Cat and the Fiddle and rescuing a dragon, before they all settle back down in the third pig's brick house. The wolf doesn't seem to have really caught on to the changes in his own story until the dragon pops out, scaring him away, and everyone else lives "happily ever aft...".

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The writing style begins with the traditional folk tale style but then shines with Wiesner's sense of humor. The pigs' dialogue is shown in speech bubbles during their time in the storybook world and is simple yet humorous. Each character maintains speech patterns from their own story, i.e. the dragon is shown as speaking with a royal flair: "O brave and noble swine."

The real star of the whole book, though, are the illustrations. The beginning shows four pictures per page, set up almost like slides. This then allows for the pig to be blown out of his own story, yet still remain on our page. It also sets us up for the storybook world that follows with pages from other stories all around.

Wiesner handles the traditional violence of the story through his illustrations. Even as the words claim that the wolf “ate the pig up.” The reader just saw the pig blown right out of the illustration one slide earlier. The wolf looks a bit confused, but the story keeps right on, claiming he ate the second pig, even though the illustrations again show an entirely different story.

When the pigs are no longer in their story, Wiesner brilliantly changes his artistic style to portray them more realistically. The pages of the pigs flying on their airplane are delightful. Who can't smile at glee on their faces or those curly, little piggy tails? Each story they enter has a different style of illustration and the pigs take on that style while within that story.

Finally, the illustrations help end the story as the dragon knocks the words down while scaring away the wolf. The characters capture the letters, so that the third pig can write out, “And they all lived happily ever after,” on the last page—allowing those pigs to finally write their own version of the story.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• Caldecott Award book
• Booklist starred review: “Not only breaks apart and deliciously reinvents the pigs' tale, it invites readers to step beyond the boundaries of story and picture book altogether.”
• Horn Book starred review: “A fantastic journey told with a light touch.”
• School Library Journal starred review: “Witty dialogue and physical comedy abound in this inspired retelling of a familiar favorite.”
  

5. CONNECTIONS

• Wiesner won the Caldecott for Tuesday (1992), The Three Pigs (2002), and Flotsam (2007). He received Caldecott Honors for Free Fall (1988) and Sector 7 (1999). Compare and contrast the illustrations on each of these books to see if you can find how each one is different yet bears his signature style.
• Other stories with “The Three Little Pigs” tale:
  

Brett, Jan. The 3 Little Dassies. ISBN: 9780399254994.

Kellogg, Steven. The Three Little Pigs. ISBN: 9780064437790.

Marshall, James. The Three Little Pigs. ISBN: 9780448422886.

Scieszka, Jon. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. ISBN: 9780140544510.