Alaska's Three Pigs (PAWS IV)
PreSchool-Grade 3-This nicely designed book holds promise in its concept, but falls a bit flat in its execution. The premise is fun: the three little pigs go Alaskan with a starring role for a grizzly bear in place of the wolf. Unfortunately, Laverde's story is wordy and not smoothly written. Despite the use of energetic fonts to highlight key words, the text lacks the snap found in Dwyer's cartoon artwork. Set off by decorative borders, the colorful illustrations provide a few humorous visual details, e.g., the homesteading pigs are provisioned with an endless supply of canned yams, instead of Spam. However, the traditional brick house is replaced with a crystal-clear ice igloo, reinforcing an unfortunate stereotype of Alaska. Sharp-eyed readers will wonder why the huffing and puffing grizzly freezes into a Denali-sized (rectangular) ice cube after falling into a (presumably round) barrel of melted snow water. There may be a demand for this title in Alaskan libraries or in collections seeking variants on the popular tale, but this retelling does not live up to the example set by Jon Scieszka's wonderfully original The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Viking, 1989).Sue Sherif, Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, AKCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.