Three Little Cajun Pigs
Written by: Mike Artell
Illustrated by: Jim Harris
Published by: Dial Books for Young Readers in NY in 2006
ISBN: 0-8037-2815-8
Genre: Picture Book
Reading Level: Grade 4
Activity Level: Grades 2 & 4
Summary: This is a spoof on the story of The Three Little Pigs. In this story all of the pigs are Cajun form Southern Louisiana and are fighting off an alligator instead of a wolf. Like in the traditional story of The Three Little Pigs, one builds a house out of straw, one builds a house out of wood, and one builds his house from bricks. The gator knocks down the first two pig’s houses with his tail and when he cannot do so with the third pig’s house he tries to go down the chimney, but gets burned by their roux, a traditional Cajun food. This story is hilarious, both in the words and illustrations, but readers should be aware that it is not written in proper English, when one reads this book the Cajun dialect comes out no matter what—and that makes it all the more hilarious. (This book does provide a glossary for the French words, several pronunciations, and a couple of terms students need to know to understand the text.)
Response: I really love this book. It was definitely one that I could not read silently; I actually sat down and read aloud—to myself. I could not imagine this being a silent reading book for children because if they can read it without saying the words aloud, they will start laughing out loud, so there is really no way to read this book silently!
The illustrations in this book are muted blues, pinks, greens, browns, and reds. They are highly detailed, which makes readers need to look at them longer in order to not miss anything. This is the type of book that you have to go back and view the illustrations several times before you have seen everything because each time you look at them you will see something new!
Teaching Connections: I think that a second grade teacher could use this book with her class. She could read the traditional version of The Three Little Pigs to the class and then this one. Then her class could make a Venn Diagram about the similarities and differences between these two works.
It would be great for a teacher to read to her fourth grade class because the boys, especially, would LOVE it and at that age they can handle having a later discussion about language. It would be important for them to recognize the differences in dialects at this age because on the writing test they have to write in proper English and it might help them remember that there is a reason for writing and speaking in that way and to not make careless errors on their test that are not proper English. (Although, this would not be a good book to expose them to directly before the test.)
I think if a teacher were to use this book in her classroom, she would need to explain that people from Louisiana do not necessarily talk like this and, although this book is funny because of the wording, we should move past that and see that though their dialect is not proper English, it is correct to them and we each have our own way of speaking that sounds funny to others. She may even want to read other books with the Appalachian Mountain dialect, the Southern dialect, the Northern dialect, etc so that her students become familiar with these differences and notice that, although these stories are funny and are not written in proper English, the rules of that dialect are in place in these stories. This book would be a great way to begin students talking about why we use proper English in school and how that might be different from what we have heard or what we use elsewhere (it sounds more professional and it links us all together to have a standard system).
What Students Learn: From this book and these activities student learn about different dialects and learn to compare and contrast stories.
Image Retrieved From: http://www.buy.com.edgesuite.net/prod/three-little-cajun-pigs/q/loc/106/35199247.html.
Written by: Mike Artell
Illustrated by: Jim Harris
Published by: Dial Books for Young Readers in NY in 2006
ISBN: 0-8037-2815-8
Genre: Picture Book
Reading Level: Grade 4
Activity Level: Grades 2 & 4
Summary: This is a spoof on the story of The Three Little Pigs. In this story all of the pigs are Cajun form Southern Louisiana and are fighting off an alligator instead of a wolf. Like in the traditional story of The Three Little Pigs, one builds a house out of straw, one builds a house out of wood, and one builds his house from bricks. The gator knocks down the first two pig’s houses with his tail and when he cannot do so with the third pig’s house he tries to go down the chimney, but gets burned by their roux, a traditional Cajun food. This story is hilarious, both in the words and illustrations, but readers should be aware that it is not written in proper English, when one reads this book the Cajun dialect comes out no matter what—and that makes it all the more hilarious. (This book does provide a glossary for the French words, several pronunciations, and a couple of terms students need to know to understand the text.)
Response: I really love this book. It was definitely one that I could not read silently; I actually sat down and read aloud—to myself. I could not imagine this being a silent reading book for children because if they can read it without saying the words aloud, they will start laughing out loud, so there is really no way to read this book silently!
The illustrations in this book are muted blues, pinks, greens, browns, and reds. They are highly detailed, which makes readers need to look at them longer in order to not miss anything. This is the type of book that you have to go back and view the illustrations several times before you have seen everything because each time you look at them you will see something new!
Teaching Connections: I think that a second grade teacher could use this book with her class. She could read the traditional version of The Three Little Pigs to the class and then this one. Then her class could make a Venn Diagram about the similarities and differences between these two works.
It would be great for a teacher to read to her fourth grade class because the boys, especially, would LOVE it and at that age they can handle having a later discussion about language. It would be important for them to recognize the differences in dialects at this age because on the writing test they have to write in proper English and it might help them remember that there is a reason for writing and speaking in that way and to not make careless errors on their test that are not proper English. (Although, this would not be a good book to expose them to directly before the test.)
I think if a teacher were to use this book in her classroom, she would need to explain that people from Louisiana do not necessarily talk like this and, although this book is funny because of the wording, we should move past that and see that though their dialect is not proper English, it is correct to them and we each have our own way of speaking that sounds funny to others. She may even want to read other books with the Appalachian Mountain dialect, the Southern dialect, the Northern dialect, etc so that her students become familiar with these differences and notice that, although these stories are funny and are not written in proper English, the rules of that dialect are in place in these stories. This book would be a great way to begin students talking about why we use proper English in school and how that might be different from what we have heard or what we use elsewhere (it sounds more professional and it links us all together to have a standard system).
What Students Learn: From this book and these activities student learn about different dialects and learn to compare and contrast stories.
Image Retrieved From: http://www.buy.com.edgesuite.net/prod/three-little-cajun-pigs/q/loc/106/35199247.html.
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