It is, by this time, a cliche: boring business dude meets a manic pixie dreamgirl who shakes up his days, keeps him up all night, teaches him about love, and then passes into the great beyond. What makes this book still feel marvelously fresh is that the MPDG isn't all that wacky, she's married, and she's already dead at the start of the book. Other than drinking mind-bending Prohibition-era quantities of booze, the adventures themselves are amazingly simple. Topper and his ghost companions enjoy several good meals, but otherwise they spend the summer mostly sleeping rough, swimming in rivers and the Atlantic, canoeing, reading [book:Ulysses|338798] aloud, and just digging the beauty of nature. There is singing and dancing, even a little brawling, but it's so charmingly bucolic. After all, if Topper gets up to 25 MPH in his car it feels fast and dangerous, and it no doubt was since roads were iffy and there were still a lot of farmers with horses about.<br/><br/>I was worried about Topper's wife. Needlessly. Smith is a writer who can produce the banter of Coward, and also spend a lot of time telling us how Topper feels about his cat. I knew it was going to have a happy ending, but I didn't know the ending would be so perfect. The overall effect is charming, but never twee. Highly recommended.

This book is told from the point of view of the fox, who is trying to tell everyone how he became known as "big and bad". He was never trying to blow the house down! He just needed a cup of sugar for his grandmothers cake, and when the pigs said no, he sneezed because of a cold and blew their house down. This continued until the brick house, which was not blown over and the police came to the wolf yelling, sneezing and huffing at the brick house because of an insult to his grandmother! Poor grandmother never got her cake! I would use this book in an activity that would explore points of view using multiple versions of the three little pig stories!

Lexile: AD510L

This is the TRUE story of the 3 little pigs told from the wolf's perspective. This would be a great way to teach children about perspectives and 1st person/ 3rd person, point of view. Kids sometimes don't realize the difference of a story between 3rd and 1st person point of view. There are other types too like omniscient, 2nd person, and limited. We would have to have an in depth lesson on pronouns and point of view, so I would read this book to a 3rd or 4th grade class.

An activity I would pair with it would be for kids to pick their favorite books and decide from which point of view the stories are told.I may assign paragraphs for the students to read in order to decide what point of view it is told from. That sounds boring, but it is important that kids understand.

Alexander T. Wolf is in pig prison and determined to prove his innocence. He insists that he was framed in the classic fairy tale and writes his own version which is shared through his point of view in the story. This spin off is told in the most unique way, while still incorporating elements from the original The Three Little Pigs. This book would be so great when comparing and contrasting stories and when discussing point of view! I would use this in my classroom to teach both of those literary concepts. When teaching these, I would also read my students the original fairy tale so they have a story to compare it to. 

Lexile: 510L

Fountas and Pinnell: Q

The book is about a young person that is told in her math class that math is used in everyday life. The student then goes home and wakes up the next day with all kinds of math problems in her head. The story continues throughout her day, explaining how math works in her life each day. Math Curse is a great book to read in a math class at the first of the year. Most students think that math is not needed beyond the classroom and they do not realize they use math already in their everyday lives. 

Before reading this book, have students take a poll on who thinks that math is important outside the classroom. The students could even have a short debate if there are others that disagree with the majority. After reading the book, have the students come up with different ways they personally use math in their everyday lives. 

Grade 2-5

Book Level:

Lexile 560L

Accelerated Reader 3.7