Review by Booklist Review
The story of the Three Little Pigs becomes a mathematical experience for young readers, complete with counting, division, and an introduction to basic shapes. Pig number one uses five bundles of straw for his cylindrical house, which is soon blown down by the wolf. Pig number two makes a tent with six sticks and some sheets, which fares no better. Pig number three constructs a house of 100 bricks, a sturdy cube that withstands the huffing and puffing. No pigs are harmed in the making of this book: the first two escape, and the wolf gives up on the third and becomes a vegetarian. Several other fairy tale characters make cameo appearances Pinocchio and Humpty Dumpty each sell building materials (sticks and leaves, respectively) to the pigs and the brightly colored digital illustrations are standard cartoon fare. Although nothing to blow the house down about, this is a good fit for those looking for a lively lesson in the daily abundance and practical usages of math.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Similar to her treatment of letters in The Three Bears ABC (2013), Maccarone blends the story of the Three Little Pigs with a counting lesson, adding in a primer on shapes and several nursery-rhyme references. Pistacchio (a pseudonym for Spanish artists Núria Aparicio and Joan I. Guardiet) illustrates the action in vibrant digital cartoons; the first pig purchases five bundles of straw from a leprechaun, while the second gets sticks from Pinocchio himself (it's unclear whether they've been sourced from the puppet's nose). The multiple educational elements laced into the story compete for attention somewhat, but it's still an entertaining introduction to numeric, geometric, and fairy-tale basics: in one of the funniest sequences, Humpty Dumpty tries to persuade the third pig to build a house from eight bags of leaves, while Puss in Boots offers 10 pails of peanuts. Ages 4-7. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Maccarone successfully combines teaching complex shapes and numbers, using a number of fairy-tale characters to do so. Mama Pig sends her three sons to seek their fortunes. The first pig meets Rumpelstiltskin and uses his straw to build a cylindrical house, which is unsurprisingly unsturdy. Pig number two meets Pinocchio and buys materials to build a cone-shaped teepee, which also doesn't hold up. The third pig meets a succession of characters, each offering him a larger number of inappropriate building supplies, such as leaves, wool, and peanuts. Finally, he encounters the Gingerbread Man, who has 100 bricks. The story, numbers, and shapes are summarized at the end. Younger children will likely need help interpreting the apple and brick graphs. VERDICT Cheerful illustrations and familiar fairy tale characters enliven this tale of numbers and shapes.-B. Allison Gray, Goleta Public Library, CA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Three pig brothers making their way in the world encounter various fairy-tale characters who offer them house-building materials (a Pinocchio-like boy has six sticks, a Humpty-like egg has eight bags of leaves, etc.). This amiable counting lesson could do without the muddying introduction to cylinders, cones, and cubes, but the sleek art, featuring nostalgia-baiting Golden Bookstyle motifs, is sensational. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The three little pigs take on math. As the title indicates, the story overtly embeds math content in its text. First, one mother pig cuts two apples in half so that she and her three children can have a snack, but since they're still hungry, she sends them off to seek their fortunes. The first two pigs acquire their respective, traditional building materials, with the text identifying five bundles of hay to build a cylindrical hut and six sticks (and some sheets) to build a conical teepee. The wolf's huffing and puffing gives both pigs time to escape, and it also apparently slows him down enough that the third pig has time to reject various materialsseven baskets of wool, eight bags of leaves, nine boxes of rose petals, 10 pails of peanutsuntil he finds someone (the Gingerbread Man) selling bricks and buys 100 for a bunkerlike house in the shape of a cube. After failing to huff and puff this house down, the wolf becomes a vegetarian, and the pigs gather in the brick house for dinner. A few extra pages prompt readers to revisit the shapes and numbers from the story, but these feel superfluous to the book rather than integral and enriching. Digital art cleverly incorporates metafictive references but is otherwise undistinguished. Count on other retellings for the fractured-fairy-tale shelf. (Math picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
