Three Little Wolves & Big Bad Pig

When adults review children’s books, they usually don’t have a clue.

Of course, we know that fairy tales provide models helping children adopt roles and assimilate behaviors. And we know very well that our sons and daughters go around in a world where they will often have to defend themselves; and they will have to throw their big bad persecutor into the metaphorical burning fireplace or boiling dixie – no wavering. Real world, hello!

Only, there are way too many fairy tales with little heroes triumphing over dangerous stalkers and precarious circumstances. The Three Little Wolves do not intend to cancel the teachings that can be drawn from classic fairy tales. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig is a door that pops open into a less-visited room.

And there we see furious readers, shuddering at the lesson this book delivers – for, they say, it leaves our children defenseless faced with life’s dismal reality. We’re not supposed to endorse the view, they claim, that violence can be dealt with kindness and love, because we end up raising a generation of victims. The bullies will be the only ones to rejoice at the spreading of this message, because they are not going to alter their aggressive behavior – while our children will be unprepared to respond to meanness and offense.

How about letting our children know that there are options? Where exactly do imagination and flexibility fit into their lives? What does the fairy tale say, essentially?

The Big Bad Pig is ready to blow down the little wolves’ newest refuge; he inhales deeply, filling his lungs with air… scented with the sweet fragrance of flowers. His blood is instantaneously suffused with the flower power: it nurtures his body, it possesses him; he becomes one with it. And all that absurd hunt comes to an end, because the pig is not bad anymore – it is transmuted.

Besides being a prolific, multi-awarded writer of children’s literature (more than a hundred books by 2011, while the Big Bad Pig is translated in at least 15 languages), Eugene Trivizas is a sociologist, specializing in the field of Criminology (PhD) and the sociology of deviance. He has had his share of criminals to deal with, directly or indirectly. And he has come to this conclusion:

Love has to be experienced, before it can be returned to the world. Inhale, exhale. Can it get simpler than that?