Ages 5-9. This fractured fairy tale has a subtle message, adding some heart to what otherwise might have been just a clever piece of storytelling. As the title tells, this is role-reversal time, with three wolf siblings heading out to find some real estate. These wolves are no dumb bunnies, however. They go right for the solid red brick model. But a big, bad piggy comes along, and when huffing and puffing doesn't work, he knocks down the house with a sledgehammer. Similar fates befall the wolves' next homes, one made of stone, the other of reinforced steel. It's only when the wolves build a house of flowers, and the pig stops to smell the lovely scent, that contentious turns contented, and the now very good pig moves in and becomes a roommate. The concepts that beauty can facilitate change and that tenderness works better than toughness won't be lost on kids. Both the art and the text are full of wit, but it's especially Oxenbury's pictures that appeal, as the cover picture of the wolves graciously eating their lunches, with napkins spread on laps, clearly shows. ~--Ilene Cooper

ISBN 0-689-81528-X. PW's starred review applauded the "laugh-out-loud results" of this talented team's clever interpretation, calling it "among the wittiest fractured fairy tales around." Ages 5-10. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In a satirical retelling of the classic tale, the roles are reversed. The art depicts the wolves demurely playing croquet, and when the big bad pig sledgehammers their brick house, the threesome are shown nervously trotting out the back, clutching their beloved teapot. Sophisticated readers will appreciate the humor in the details and in the unexpected happy ending. From HORN BOOK 1993, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Never mind the other incarnations of this tale--classic, fractured, rapped; this inversion will have children giggling from the outset. Sent into the world by a mother who wears hair curlers, three ``cuddly'' wolves build a brick house, then try to fend off a snarling thug of a pig who demolishes it with a sledgehammer. Their next place is concrete; the pig has a pneumatic drill. They construct a metal fortress, complete with steel chains and Plexiglas; the pig goes for dynamite. Then they build a house of flowers and the pig pulls a ``Ferdinand,'' not only reforming but making it a happy ménage à quatre. This latter-day plea for a peaceable kingdom reckons once and for all with the question at the core of this familiar tale--why must pigs and wolves be enemies? Oxenbury provides dauntingly well- executed watercolors, offering such charming contrasts as an angular modernistic concrete home in an otherwise pastoral setting. (Picture book. 5-10)

PreS-Gr 3‘A menacing pig is thwarted by three endearing young wolves in this new twist on the porcine favorite. Three cheers for these frisky, frolicking creatures‘and for the swine who learns the joy of friendship and beauty. (Dec. 1993) (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.