Review Detail

“Who’s Writing This Story?” by Robin Newman, illustrated by Deborah Zemke, tells a revised version of the story of the three little pigs. If you’ve ever wondered how a story gets told, this book helps explain it. While the three little pigs and the big bad wolf are what readers feel they know, it’s interesting to learn that their story may not be everything it seems. This book shares how the four of them argue with the writer about what kind of story should be told. Maybe the heroes and villains aren’t as set in stone as they seem.

The book shares the essential components of storytelling, including the definitions of characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. All of these ideas come together to form a story that readers can engage with and enjoy. The story may not be what the writer envisioned in the first place, but as she learns more about the characters and who they feel they really are (literally, though this could be taken from a figurative standpoint, too, since writers delve deeper into their characters without actually meeting them in person like in this book), she discovers that the book needs to go in another direction.

This is a cute and fun retelling of a story that is widely known, and while it captures the essence of the original, it also takes its own form in a unique way.