Three Little Gators- A Book Review for Children's Lit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ketteman, Helen. 2009. THREE LITTLE GATORS. Ill. by Will Terry. Chicago, Il: Albert Whitman & Company. ISBN 0807578247

PLOT SUMMARY

In this version of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS, Mama Gator evicts her three young sons from the family log.  The three young gators must then find their own homes.  When First Gator builds his house of rocks, the two other gators tell him that it is a “bad choice” because it will be too much work.  Second Gator builds his house of sticks, and the Third Gator builds his house of sand.  When the Big-bottomed Boar shows up, he destroys both the Second and Third Gator’s homes with a wiggle of his “rump with a bump, bump, bump,” and all the gators find safety with First Gator and his stone home.  In classic form, the Boar tries to wiggle down the chimney, but for his troubles is rewarded with grill marks on his big-bottom and runs off, never to wiggle his rump in the swamp again.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This East Texas version of THE THREE LITTLE PIGS, THE THREE LITTLE GATORS, is an entertaining and colorful read. Ketteman uses dialect “It’s time you young ‘uns set out…” and regional vocabulary to write a tale that sounds like it comes straight out of the swamp.  In this comical tale, Ketteman adds her own refrains, such as the Big-Bottom Boar shouting, “I’ll wiggle my rump with a bump, bump, bump and smash your house!” She uses parallel sentences and rhyme to help in the oral telling of the story with word pairings such as “thinner” and “dinner.” Her literary elements round out with onomatopoeia, alliteration, and regional idioms such as “raced faster than snakes after a bullfrog.”

The cartoonish illustrations show adorable and colorful characters.  They complement and extend the text with each scene, and add additional humor.  For example, when the Big-Bottom Boar exclaims, “… wiggle my rump… and smash your house,” the illustration shows a huge boar bottom smashing the house.  They are hilarious! When the boar is shimmying down the chimney, the page is turned sideways and his piggy-fear is clear on his face while his bum lights up with little piggy-bum hairs.

While the conventional plot and theme are preserved, the humor both the author and illustrator use in this version of such a well-known and often-retold story make it stand out as a fun and vibrant alternative.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

*Wanda Gag Award Honor Book 2010

*Publishers Weekly:  “… folksy details in both text ("Third Gator ran faster than a fox after a muskrat") and art (a bottle of boar sauce sits next to the fireplace, as the boar earns some grill marks) should entertain.”

*Booklist:  “Loaded with plenty of outlandish action from the bug-eyed, cartoonish characters rendered in glimmering colors, this would make a rip-roaring group read-aloud.”

CONNECTIONS

*Before reading THE THREE LITTLE GATORS, watch Disney’s Silly Symphony adaptation of the original story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olo923T2HQ4.

*Read more alternative version of the story, such as THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS by Jon Scieszka or THE THREE LITTLE FISH AND THE BIG BAD SHARK by Ken Geist or THE THREE LITTLE JAVELINAS by Susan Lowell.  Have students determine what elements of the story always stay the same, and which elements can change.

*Read more fractured fairy tales also by Helen Ketteman, such as BUBBA, THE COWBOY PRINCE.

*Have the students adapt the story into a reader’s theater.

*Have students write their own version of a folktale- either this one or another one they like.