The Horn Book Guide

EASY READERS

Miles, Betty

The Three Little Pigs

32 pp. | Simon | September, 1998 | Trade ISBN 0-689-81788-6 $$15.00

(4) K-3 Ready-to-Read series. Illustrated by Paul Meisel. These well-known tales are retold with beginning readers in mind. Miles tells both entirely in dialogue (e.g. "Ahh. This porridge is just right. Mmm!" and "I'm sleepy."), and the very simple texts include plenty of repetition, limited vocabulary, and expression in the declarative sentences. Cheerful, cartoony pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations and the folktales' familiarity make up for what the stories are missing in plot.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth