The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale, retold by Steven Guarnaccia, 2010

Guarnaccia, Steven. 2010. The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale. Ill. by the author. New York City: Abrams Books. ISBN 9-780810-989412

Artwork by Steven Guarnaccia, image by abramsbooks.com

Ages 3-8

We all know the timeless story of the Three Little Pigs. Author and illustrator Steven Guarnaccia puts a new and decidedly design-focused spin on this enduring story with The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale. He is currently the chair of the illustration program at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.

Once upon a time, as this fractured fairy tale begins, three little pigs decide to leave their mother's arts and crafts style home (The Gamble House, designed by Charles and Henry Greene) to face the world on their own. The first little pig, represented as Frank Gehry, makes his house out of scraps, like the Gehry House. The second little pig, who resembles Philip Johnson, creates a house out of glass, a la Johnson's Glass House, and the third little pig, who is depicted as Frank Lloyd Wright, builds his Fallingwater home out of stone and concrete. The big bad wolf, looking stylish in a leather jacket and riding a Philippe Stark-designed motorcycle, arrives at the first pig’s house. With his request to be let in rebuffed ("not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin."), the wolf huffs and puffs and blows the house of scraps away. Then the wolf arrives at the Glass House, is refused entry, and proceeds to blow that house "to smithereens" (the children I read this book to really liked that word). After pulling up to the home of the third pig and unable to get in or blow it down, the wolf invites the pig to meet him at a greenhouse to get tomatoes the next day at 7 a.m. The pig arrives at the greenhouse (I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louve) at 6 a.m., gets some tomatoes, and leaves, having tricked the wolf. After two more days of trickery by the pig, the wolf arrives at Fallingwater and announces he is coming in after them. He tumbles down the chimney and into a fire, scorching his tail. Running from the house, smoke streaming from his tail, the wolf leaves, never to return, and the pigs sit down to a dinner of tomato soup and apple pie and live happily ever after.

Guarnaccia's pen and ink and watercolor drawings are eye-catching and pop off the page. Many of the illustrations include celebrated furnishings and other high-design objects created by world-renowned designers. As a guide for readers who want to know more about the objects, Guarnaccia included each object with its name, the designer’s name and year it was created on the endpapers. Even the greenery, trees, and clouds are stylized, and the text looks as though it was carefully handwritten.

This classic story has found new life in Guarnaccia’s picture book, which serves as an excellent introduction to architecture and design, and is great for a read aloud. He stays true to the story, and proves that he has a talent for combining art and the art of storytelling. The book is sophisticated enough that adults who are fans of design and architecture will enjoy it also. I personally read this book to three different classes at my elementary school, and the students truly enjoyed it. They were especially delighted to see the wolf on a motorcycle.

Learning connections include:

•      A more in-depth discussion of what architecture and design are. 
•           Every child is a designer! Let them use their imaginations to design an everyday object and/or a building (A new home? A new school?). You never know, one of your students could be the next big name in design.
•          Older students could research one of the architects or designers represented in the book, learning  more about them and their works.
•          If you have Guarnaccia’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you could compare and contrast the illustrations in both books.
•          Have students write about why design is important. What would life be like if all chairs looked the same, or everyone wore the same clothes?
•          Invite a local architect or designer to visit your class to discuss their job – remind them to bring some tools of the trade to show off to the class.
•         Invite your art teacher to get involved by asking him or her to show students famous examples of architecture and design and discuss why they are famous.
• Create a Three Little Pigs mutli-circled Venn diagram after reading other versions of the story, and have students compare and contrast.

Reviews:

Booklist: “Guarnaccia combines a delightfully fractured fairy tale with an ultrastylish, kid-friendly primer of twentieth-century design.” (2012)

The Chronicle of Higher Education: “There is a certain genius to this reimagining. After all, the original children’s tale was grounded in the lessons of choosing good materials and planning well.” (2010)

If you want to learn more about Steven Guarnaccia and his body of work, here is his official website:

http://stevenguarnaccia.com

The website is under construction, but currently features some of the illustrations from this book, for those who are curious.