THE MODERN CLASSIC WITH OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD • The Big Bad Wolf tells his side in this fractured fairy tale, brought to life with irreverent storytelling and artwork that “older kids (and adults) will find very funny” ( School Library Journal ). A New York Times Best Book of the Year • American Booksellers Association Picture Book Hall of Fame • Society of Illustrators Silver Medal • New York Public Library 100 Great Children’s Books for 100 Years • An American Library Association Notable Book You may think you know the story of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf—but only one person knows the real story. That person is A. Wolf. His tale starts with a birthday cake for his dear old granny, a bad head cold . . . and a bad reputation. It ends in the Big House: the Pig Pen. What really happened when A. Wolf was at the door? Was it an historic pig out or a Mother Goose frame-up? You read it. You decide. Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith combine their talents for droll tales and provocative reporting to bring the true story of this much maligned figure to the public. Big and Bad? Could be. Hilarious? Of course. Did the story of the three little pigs ever seem slightly biased to you? All that huffing and puffing--could one wolf really be so unequivocally evil? Finally, we get to hear the rest of the story, "as told to author Jon Scieszka," straight from the wolf's mouth. As Alexander T. Wolf explains it, the whole Big Bad Wolf thing was just a big misunderstanding. Al Wolf was minding his own business, making his granny a cake, when he realized he was out of a key ingredient. He innocently went from house to house to house (one made of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks) asking to borrow a cup of sugar. Could he help it if he had a bad cold, causing him to sneeze gigantic, gale-force sneezes? Could he help it if pigs these days use shabby construction materials? And after the pigs had been ever-so-accidentally killed, well, who can blame him for having a snack? As with The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales , (another stellar collaboration by Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith), children who know all the old stories by heart will delight in reading impudent new versions. Here, Scieszka's text is clever, savvy, and tabloid-quick, and Smith's stretchy-strange illustrations complete this funny, irreverent, thoroughly original tale. (Ages 4 to 8) Grade 1 Up--Victim for centuries of a bad press, Alexander ("You can call me Al") T. Wolf steps forward at last to give his side of the story. Trying to borrow a cup of sugar to make a cake for his dear old Granny, Al calls on his neighbors--and can he help it if two of them built such shoddy houses? A couple of sneezes, a couple of dead pigs amidst the wreckage and, well, it would be shame to let those ham dinners spoil, wouldn't it? And when the pig in the brick house makes a nasty comment about Granny, isn't it only natural to get a little steamed? It's those reporters from the Daily Pig that made Al out to be Big and Bad, that caused him to be arrested and sent to the (wait for it) Pig Pen. "I was framed," he concludes mournfully. Smith's dark tones and sometimes shadowy, indistinct shapes recall the distinctive illustrations he did for Merriam's Halloween ABC (Macmillan, 1987); the bespectacled wolf moves with a rather sinister bonelessness, and his juicy sneezes tear like thunderbolts through a dim, grainy world. It's the type of book that older kids (and adults) will find very funny. -John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. Jon Scieszka totally failed to spring A. Wolf free with this story, but he did go on to write scads of subversive bestselling books, including The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales . He also founded the literary initiative Guys Read and was appointed the first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Lane Smith and his artwork did not help A. Wolf in his bid for freedom. If anything, that illustration of the dripping cheeseburger set back Mr. Wolf’s case. However, he did go on to accept a Carle Honor for Lifetime Achievement, two Caldecott Honor Medals, and four New York Times Best Illustrated Book awards.