[ 책 소개 ]

* 미국선생님이 선정한 100대 필독도서 (Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children)


"The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairy Tales"로 Caldecott Honor를 수상한 Jon Scieszka와 Lane Smith(Illustrator)의 콤비가 만든 또 하나의 걸작 베스트셀러 그림책입니다.

유명한 세마리 돼지형제 이야기를 늑대의 입장에서 재조명한 내용입니다. 오리지널 이야기는 세마리 돼지 형제가 각각 짚단, 나무, 벽돌로 집을 만들었는데 늑대가 나타나서 짚단과 나무로 만든 집을 입김으로 불어서 쓰러뜨리고 돼지 형제 두마리를 잡아 먹었으나 벽돌로 만든 집은 튼튼해서 부수지 못했다는 이야기로 유비무환의 중요성을 강조하는 내용입니다. 원작에서는 늑대가 잔인하고 무자비한 괴물로 묘사하고 있습니다만, 이 글에서는 늑대의 입장에서 전혀 다른 진실을 들려줍니다.

늑대는 할머니의 생일 케익을 만들려고 했으나 설탕이 모자라서 돼지 형제가 사는 집으로 설탕을 얻으러 갔지요. 늑대는 그 당시 심한 감기에 걸려 있었는데 그만 첫번째 돼지 집에서 재채기가 나는 바람에 짚단으로 만든 집이 무너져 버리고 짚단에 묻혀서 첫번째 돼지는 그만 죽고 말지요....

선악이 분명한 동화를 수동적으로 받아들이는 것이 아니라 적극적으로 이야기를 재해석하고 상대방의 입장에서 이야기를 풀어나간 작가의 발상이 기발합니다. 이야기는 전반적으로 유머러스하고 경쾌하며 문장은 비교적 쉬운 편입니다. 이야기 마지막 부분에서는 언론의 센세이널리즘을 신랄하게 풍자합니다. 어린 독자에게 사고의 폭과 깊이를 키워줄 수 있는 좋은 책입니다.






[ 관련 동영상 보기 ]

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[ 서지 정보 ]

Paperback - 32 pages
ISBN-10: 0140544518
ISBN-13: 978-0140544510
책 크기 : 26.5cm x 21.4cm



[ 영문 서평 ]

School Library Journal
Victim for centuries of a bad press, Alexander (``You can call me Al'') T. Wolf steps forward at last to give his side of the story. Trying to borrow a cup of sugar to make a cake for his dear old Granny, Al calls on his neighbors--and can he help it if two of them built such shoddy houses? A couple of sneezes, a couple of dead pigs amidst the wreckage and, well, it would be shame to let those ham dinners spoil, wouldn't it? And when the pig in the brick house makes a nasty comment about Granny, isn't it only natural to get a little steamed? It's those reporters from the Daily Pig that made Al out to be Big and Bad, that caused him to be arrested and sent to the (wait for it) Pig Pen. ``I was framed,'' he concludes mournfully. Smith's dark tones and sometimes shadowy, indistinct shapes recall the distinctive illustrations he did for Merriam's Halloween ABC (Macmillan, 1987); the bespectacled wolf moves with a rather sinister bonelessness, and his juicy sneezes tear like thunderbolts through a dim, grainy world. It's the type of book that older kids (and adults) will find very funny.


Children's Literature
In this humorous story, Alexander T. Wolf tells his own outlandish version of what really happens during his encounter with the three pigs. He claims that he runs out of sugar for a cake that he is making for his grandmother. In an effort to locate sugar for his recipe, he visits the homes of his pig neighbors. At the first two houses, he goes into sneezing fits and ends up blowing the houses down, killing both pigs. Of course he couldn't let those two good meals go to waste, so he eats them up! When he visits the third house, occupied by a grouchy pig, the wolf endures nasty insults, and as a result, tries to knock down the front door. When the police arrive at the scene, they capture an angry sneezing and wheezing wolf. After he ends up in jail, the wolf claims that he is being framed by the media, who are "blowing" the whole story out of proportion. Smith's simplistic and wacky illustrations add to the effectiveness of this fractured fairy tale.


Publishers Weekly
In this gaily newfangled version of a classic tale, Scieszka and Smith ( Flying Jake ) argue in favor of the villain, transforming the story of the three little pigs into a playfully suspicious, rather arch account of innocence beleaguered. Quoth the wolf: ``I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started, but it's all wrong.'' According to his first-person testimony, the wolf went visiting the pigs in search of a neighborly cup of sugar; he implies that had the first two happened to build more durable homes and the third kept a civil tongue in his head, the wolf's helpless sneezes wouldn't have toppled them. As for his casual consumption of the pigs, the wolf defends it breezily (``It seemed like a shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw'') and claims cops and reporters ``framed'' him. Smith's highly imaginative watercolors eschew realism, further updating the tale, though some may find their urbane stylization and intentionally static quality mystifyingly adult. Designed with uncommon flair, this alternative fable is both fetching and glib.