The Three Pigs

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The Three Pigs

Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York, NY: Clarion Books.

 

Age Level:  4 and up

Genre:  This is a picture book.

Summary: 

The Three Pigs is a picture book that views the traditional story of the Three Little Pigs from the pigs’ perspective. As each pig literally escapes the pages of the story they meet other storybook characters along the way. In the end a great feast is shared with all the characters in the pig’s brick house with the wolf seen through a window all alone.

The story starts off with no surprises. The traditional story is told and the illustrations seem to be done with colored pencil and watercolors. As you turn to page two and three the story takes a turn. As the wolf is blowing the straw house down the pig inside leaps out of the story and appears to be outside of the page. A chat bubble is used to show the reader what the pig is saying or thinking. He exclaims that the wolf “blew (him) right out of the story”. As each pig is introduced they join the other pigs “outside the story.”

 Then the pigs get out of control and start making paper airplanes out of the pages of the story and use them to fly to other traditional literature storybook tales. They meet Hey Diddle Diddle and a dragon. They join the pigs as they all go back to the brick house to have some soup!

Reflection: 

            When I fist came across this Caldecott award winning picture book I though to myself, “The story of the Three Little Pigs won an award? How could this over done story possibly be any different than the hundreds of others that are out there?” Well, David Wiesner definitely created a different take on the classic story.

            The composition of the story is what guides the reader. Without the illustrations, there would be no story. Each page frame was manipulated by the characters “outside the story”. Some pages were torn up, some were made into a a paper airplane, and some where wadded up. The imagery used to show the characters taking over the story was fantastic!It was very detailed and showed action.

The artistic means used in this book are drawings (colored pencil, colored ink, and pencil) and paintings (watercolor). When the pigs went to the land of Hey Diddle Diddle, the artistic style changed from realistic to cartoon. 

  

Again. without these beautiful illustrations, the book would not exist.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it took a traditional fairytale and surprised me with new unexpected elements. This book would be great to use to show students how you can take a story so familiar and use creativity to alter it just enough to give it surprise without changing the framework of the original work. The story of the Three Little Pigs was not lost in this book. It was twisted enough to get my attention but still communicated the traditional story line. I now understand why it won an award!

Zen Shorts

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Zen Shorts

Muth, J. J. (2005). Zen shorts. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Age Level:  4-8

Genre:  This is a picture book.

Summary:  

        Zen Shorts is a book is about a giant panda bear named Stillwater and three curious children. Stillwater moved to the same neighborhood as little Michael, Addy, and Karl and they quickly became friends. As the children visit Stillwater, he tells each of them a different Zen short.

Reflection:

 
       This picture book includes many wonderfully beautiful illustrations full of color and detail. The artistic media used is water color. Even though the brush strokes are visible, the illustrator was still able to make the paintings very life like or realistic. The pictures come to life and contribute to the story immensely. Without the illustrations, the meaning of the story would not possess as much of a feeling of calm as the illustrations give us.

    There are two different types of artistic media used. In the picture above many watercolors are used to give the reader a sense of reality with a little dream like feeling. The picture below shows the other type of artistic media used. There is a lot of negative space in these illustrations where the artist used only black ink on a solid color background. These two different styles are used to guide the reader as the two different stories are being told. 

      

 
            The colorful watercolor pages of the book are used to denote when Stillwater is interacting with the three children. The black and white pages are used to denote when Stillwater is telling the children a Zen short.

            As Stillwater encounters the children he tells each of them a different Zen short (a short meditation of the teachings of Buddha). These stories do not necessarily teach a moral or lesson, just an idea to ponder over. The Zen shorts are told in a kid friendly voice and allow for further discussion. This book would be great for open discussion in a classroom and teaching practical living content.

The way the author intertwined each story was clever and made the book flow nicely. The stories characterize Stillwater as peaceful, noble, and loveable. A great story book character!  

The combination of beautiful illustrations and language made this trade book a great easy read and worthy of a look. Even the adults can learn something from this fun loving bear.  

Introduction!

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Hello!

         My name is Michelle Czepyha and I am currently teaching music at an elementary school in Lexington, KY! I see every K-5th grade student in the school for one hour every 4 days. I hold a BM in vocal performance (singing) and a BMME in music education. After obtaining my first degree I moved to NYC to pursue a career as a musical theater actor. I was fortunate enough to perform in several national musical theater tours including performing as Alice in Alice in Wonderland the musical. I originated the role of the mother in the off-Broadway musical production of the popular children’s book Pinkalicious and toured the nation as Ruby in Nickelodeon’s Max and Ruby the musical. I enjoyed very much living and working in NYC, but knew it was time for me to give back by teaching children the power of music!

I am currently working on obtaining my Master's degree in reading and writing! I hope to be able to gain new strategies on how to incorporate literature and writing into my music classroom. With the arts being so unstable in the school system, I think it is important to show how music can and does help students excel in other content areas such as reading and writing! 

        When not teaching and studying I enjoy swimming at the gym, sleeping (ha!), singing, giving voice lessons, and watching The Walking Dead! I'm excited to be apart of this class and am looking forward to meeting all of you!