"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."

"No, no, not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!"

This is a retelling of the traditional favourite where the wolf has his way for a while but in the end the cleverest little pig outwits him.

ReviewsS

Clearly there is no great need for another version, but Bishop - an award-winning New Zealander - does have something new to add to this cornerstone of folklore. His adaptation follows the one by Joseph Jacobs with only minor changes; his pen and watercolour illustrations, however, bring the pigs right into the 90's - with Mrs Pig sending her sons forth from the backyard pool, where they're lounging while she mows the lawn; the wolf equipped with a walkman; the bricks arriving by truck; the third pig ornamenting his new property with a well-tended garden; and dozens of nifty, humorous details. Why not another version, if it's this good? After all, there's no better story.

The Kirkus Reviews, January 1990

"Picture a farm somewhere on the Canterbury Plains, norwesterly arches in a hazy blue sky. The family are gathered around the swimming pool, the children lazily relaxing, while their liberated mother mows the lawn...

"One day Mrs Pig decided it was time her sons left home."

So begins Gavin Bishop's interpretation of The Three Little Pigs, a rollicking New Zealand depiction based on the earliest version where the pigs are eaten...

Bishop's illustrations have the occasional reference to traditional fairy-tale, a heart above the doorway of a log house, the beginnings of a forest in the collection of garden centre trees, the traditional cadence of the text...but this is an 80's presentation, with a wolf who's a cool dude, with walk-man headphones and a trendy white jacket. He's lost none of his wiles in the intervening years, however, and the story's as satisfying as ever."

Ann Packer, Evening Post, Wellington NZ, April, 1990