Module 9: Where's the big bad wolf

Book Summary: A cute interpretation of the classic tale of the Three Little Pigs, with a twist. 

APA Reference of Book: Christelow, E. (2002). Where's the big bad wolf?. New York, NY: Clarion Books.

Impressions: I liked the book and the illustrations.  It’s a may be a little long for the young readers in the classrooms, but it would be a great book for story-time.  The text is easy to read and is written big enough where the beginning readers can see it well.  There’s also a lot of repetition in the story, which also makes it an ideal book for kids to learn to read from.

Professional Review: Three little pigs get some real bad advice from a wolf in a real goofy sheep disguise in this comical whodunit. The three little pigs are having their homes blown dowry--and escaping by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins--and Detective Doggedly believes it might be the work of the shiftless, no-account neighborhood wolf, the infamous BBW. But the only character found at the crime scenes is a newcomer to town: Esmeralda the sheep. Sure, kids will note, Esmeralda their foot, for her disguise is pretty transparent. She has also been giving the pigs construction ideas: straw is good, twigs are good, and cardboard's not bad. Two cows suggest a brick house, which foils the wolf and ends in his unveiling and incarceration. Short-term incarceration, that is, as he's soon back, this time tricked out as a horse, with more self-serving recommendations: "Pick peas after midnight, when everybody is asleep. They'll taste sweeter." So what if there are a few inexplicables here--How did the wolf con his way into that hospital bed?--this is good clownish fun, and the rough-and-tumble art keeps the farce bubbling. (Picture book. 4-7)

Where’s the Big Bad Wolf? (2002). (Book Review). Kirkus Reviews, 70(14), 1028.

Library Uses: Have the kids split up into groups of two.  The students should come up with a mystery of their own, and when everyone's finished, the students will read their short story aloud and allow the rest of the kids to try and solve or figure out what's happening.