AWARDS & REVIEWS

“Struggling to keep her family afloat, a mother pig tells her three children that they have to seek their own fortunes. The classic narrative framework is here: The wolf tries to eat each pig at a house made out of grass bundles, a house made of ‘a large pile of construction materials,’ and one that is a ‘stately castle.’ But each pig has a calculated plan for thwarting the wolf, who eventually slinks back home. The pigs’ clever constructions, conveyed in Geisert’s trademark detailed illustrations, will enthrall children who love to build things (or take them apart): There’s a complicated mechanism for blasting the wolf with flour; a house under construction that puts itself together when the wolf huffs on it; and one that releases an ‘intricate alarm system of horns and whistles’ when the wolf puffs on it. The illustrations, hand-colored copperplate etchings, have a distinct and inviting texture… Vivid descriptors are used to bring the wolf’s exertions to the page: ‘Famished and desperate, the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed and blew mightily.’ The worldbuilding in the illustrations is thoughtful and elaborate and will have readers poring over the pages. An entertaining delight for (nonpig) budding engineers everywhere.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In Wilke Pope’s wry reimagining of the porcine chestnut, … the plucky pigs thwart the hungry wolf in elaborate and unexpected ways, dusting him with flour, utilizing his breath to blow a house into shape, and blasting him with sound, forcing him to retreat to the comforts of a hot bath in an elaborate footed tub… Geisert’s fantastically detailed etchings, alive with twitchy lines, nervy hatchings, and dusty-hued washes, feature the woebegone wolf making his way through a chaotic rural landscape of wandering roads, ramshackle dwellings, and repurposed junk, and the convoluted contraptions of clever swine.” —Publishers Weekly