The Three Little Rigs - Hardcover

Gordon, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060581182 ISBN 13: 9780060581183

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2005

Synopsis

From the author/illustrator of Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery!

"Will mesmerize tool-and-vehicle-obsessed little ones" (ALA Booklist). "Kids who love trucks will enjoy this adaptation" (School Library Journal).

When the three little rigs set out to build their own garages, each one thinks that his is going to be the strongest. But then the big bad wrecking ball comes to call and threatens to smash their new homes to smithereens. The brothers learn that it’s only by bravery and teamwork that they can win the day.

About this title

About the Author

David Gordon is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestseller Extremely Cute Animals Operating Heavy Machinery as well as The Ugly Truckling and The Three Little Rigs. He has also done concept work for Pixar's Toy Story I and II; A Bug's Life; Monsters, Inc.; and Cars, as well as the hit Nickelodeon cartoon show SpongeBob SquarePants. He helped design the characters in BlueSky's feature film Robots. Dave Gordon lives in New York City, where he continues to create stories for children.

From the Back Cover

"Little rig, little rig, let me come in!"

"Not by the chrome on my chinny chin chin."

"Then I’ll crash and I’ll bash and I’ll smash your house in."

When the three little rigs set out to build their own garages, each one thinks that his is going to be the strongest. But then the big bad wrecking ball comes to call and threatens to smash their new homes to smithereens. The brothers learn that it’s only by bravery and teamwork that they can win the day. A comic sequel to the ugly truckling.

Reviews

Grade 1-3–Three little rigs are sent off by their mama to build their own individual garages. The blue one builds his out of wood, the yellow one uses bricks, and the red one makes his out of steel. The evil wrecking ball comes and smashes the first two. The final rig, along with his brothers, enlists the help of the cranes and sends the wrecking ball, the mean magnet, and the cruel cutter to their fiery deaths in the melting pot. This fractured tale is not for the faint of heart. The wrecking ball itself has a scary, monsterlike face. The pages with the rigs are, by contrast, light and shiny. The accomplished artwork adds great drama to the story. Kids who love trucks will enjoy this adaptation, and fans of David Gordon's The Ugly Truckling (HarperCollins, 2004) are also a likely audience.– Linda M. Kenton, San Rafael Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PreS-Gr. 2. NASCAR dads and little grease monkeys rejoice. As in The Ugly Truckling [BKL Je 1 & 15 04], Gordon has changed the oil on another familiar folktale. In this vehicular version of "The Three Little Pigs," the offspring of big-rig parents must roll forth into the wide industrial wasteland to "build their own garages." But if the "big, bad wrecking ball" has anything to say about it, their shelters won't remain standing for long. The illustrations clearly show Gordon's background as an animation concept artist, with headlights, bumpers, and rivets smoothly coalescing into expressive facial features. However, even with the rigs' shiny primary colors providing rays of cheer, the sooty, factory-block surroundings do little to counteract the tale's inherent violence--brought to a particularly harsh extreme in the final image of the wrecking ball's demise. But the familiar story line, turbocharged with things on wheels and helpful machinery (Gordon's anthropomorphic transformations extend to air compressors and pneumatic drills), will mesmerize tool-and-vehicle-obsessed little ones. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060581182
• ISBN 13: 9780060581183
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gordon David
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32