The Three Little Gators - Blog 6

The Three Little Gators by Helen Ketteman is a  fractured fairy tale of the traditional Three Little Pigs. In this version, three gators leave their mother and set out on their own in an east Texas swamp. Before leaving, Mama warns them to build houses strong enough to keep Big-bottomed Boar away. The first gator chooses rocks, the second sticks and the lazy third gator chooses a house of sand, after commenting on the amount of work for the other two. Soon, Big-bottomed Boar announces his arrival at the third gator’s sand house and by wiggling his rump with a bump, bump, bump, he knocks the house down. The second gator’s house of sticks is knocked down in the same manner. Knowing the danger they are in, the second and third gators rush to their brother’s house that was made of rocks. After unsuccessfully trying to knock the house down with his rump, Big-bottomed Boar squeezes down the chimney right on top of the hot grate on the barbecue grill. With grill stripes burned into his rump, Big-bottomed Boar never bothered the gators again.

The Three Little Gators is a Folklore because it's from a traditional story but also Fantasy because no gator is going to go build a house out of rocks, sticks, and sand. This book falls under primary for first and second graders. The illustrations are amazing. It looks as if they used water color mixed with paint. The illustrator made the eyes on the gators very large giving them lots of expression. He shows the hog breathing heavy by light lines coming out of the nose and mouth almost like air. 

Motivational Activities - 

1.)  I would have the kids compare The Three Little Pigs to The Three Little Gators by having them draw the different houses they make.

2.) I would have them draw the kind of house they would make if they were a little gator

Questions - 

1.) Can a gator really make a house out of sand?

2.) Do hogs like to eat gators?

3.) What was the house made out of that saved the little gators?

I didn't know they had this fractured version till I was looking around in the library. I thought it was too cute for many reason. One being it's about gators and of course I'm a Florida Gator! Go Gators! I also thought it was funny some of the wording that was used by the hog -  "Then I'll wiggle my rump with a bump, bump, bump and smash your house!" (Ketteman, 2009) Super cute! 

Ketteman, H.(2009). The Three Little Gators. Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Company

Galda, L. Cullinan,  B. E., & Sipe, L.R. (2010). Literature and the Child (7th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworths, Inc.