The Three Ninja Pigs

The Three Ninja Pigs

Written by Corey Rosen Schwartz

Illustrated by Dan Santat

Scholastic Inc., 2012

35 pages

Fantasy

            Who doesn’t like a good story about ninjas?  That is exactly why I picked up The Three Ninja Pigs, a variation of a very familiar story.  Everyone knows what happens in the original story of The Three Little Pigs.  The first two pigs are too busy playing to build sturdy houses, so they are in big trouble when the big, bad wolf comes around.  They run to the third pig’s house, and they are safe because the third pig took the time to build a nice, sturdy house.  They then teach the big, bad wolf a lesson, and they are never bothered by him again.  How different will the story be with ninja pigs?  Read The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz to find out!

            Dan Santat did a great job illustrating this book.  He drew the illustrations with Sumi brush work on rice paper, and he finished them in Adobe Photoshop.  The illustrations make it evident that this story is set in Japan.  All of the characters are wearing traditional Japanese/ninja clothing, and the setting looks like what one would imagine when thinking about Japan.  The arrangement and features of some of the illustrations remind me of Japanese action movies and graphic novels/comics.  I really enjoyed Santat’s illustrations, and children would enjoy them too.

            This book would be great to use in classrooms ranging from second grade to fifth grade.  Besides being part of the classroom library for students to read on their own, this book could be used as a teaching tool in a variety of ways.  This book could be used as a supplemental tool when studying Japanese culture.  As previously stated, the characters in the story are wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and a few Japanese words are used during the story.  These words are actually defined in the glossary at the end of the book, so the teacher and students would both have easy access to the definitions.  The story could also be used as part of poetry/rhyming lesson.  The story is written in rhyme, so the students could identify the rhyme scheme that is used.  This story could also be used in a compare and contrast lesson.  The students could compare and contrast this story with the original The Three Little Pigs, identifying what is similar between the stories and what is different.  Therefore, The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz would be a great addition to any elementary classroom library.