Eight short scenes. The storyteller on this page reads it in 3 minutes 19 seconds.

Does my child need to read?

No. Whisper each of your child’s lines and they say it back. It does not have to match the words.

Is this the old Three Little Pigs?

It is our retelling of the fable about three pigs who build their houses of straw, sticks and bricks. In ours the wind does the blowing, not the Big Bad Wolf.

Who is the voice on this page?

A recorded storyteller. In Nanuli the same storyteller can read the grown-up parts for you, so you only record your child’s lines.

The Three Little Pigs: a bedtime story to read aloud

Read it together

You readYour child says it

Scene 1 of 8

Three little pigs set off from their mother’s thatched cottage with bundles on sticks.

Three little pigs set out one morning to build three little houses, because they had grown too big for their mother’s kitchen and said so at breakfast every single day. Each of them took a different road out of the village.

Your child“Meet you tonight,”

said the third little pig,

Your child“when they are finished.”

The other two waved without turning round, which is how brothers wave.

Scene 2 of 8

The first pig naps in the sun beside his little straw house.

The first pig built his house out of straw, and who could blame him. Straw is light, and it smells of summer, and a whole house of it can be finished before lunch.

The other pigs“Straw is quick,”

said the first pig, lying down in the sun beside it.

The other pigs“No heavy things for me!”

Scene 3 of 8

The second pig stands in the doorway of a house made of leaning sticks.

The second pig built his house out of sticks, which took slightly longer, and he whistled the whole time he was doing it. The sticks leaned against each other in a way that looked clever if you did not look too hard.

The other pigs“Sticks are smart,”

said the second pig.

The other pigs“Straw is silly. Bricks show off.”

Then he went inside and had a nap.

Scene 4 of 8

The third pig lays the last bricks of a little brick house as the sun goes down.

But the third little pig carried bricks. One brick, then another brick, then another, all the way up the lane. Soon the third pig’s arms ached and the sun went orange, and the walls were taller than a pig.

Your child“It takes longer,”

said the third pig, laying the last one flat.

Your child“It will still be here tomorrow.”

The bricks were cold, and the roof went on just before dark.

Scene 5 of 8

The wind blows straw across the lane as the first pig runs for it.

That night the wind came down the lane, hard and cold. It leaned on the straw house, almost politely at first.

The wind“Let me in,”

said the wind. Then it stopped being polite. The straw went up the lane in handfuls, and the first pig ran for the stick house with his ears flat and his eyes very round.

Scene 6 of 8

Two pigs run through the windy night toward the brick house with a light in the window.

Then the wind found the stick house. It puffed once, and the sticks flew apart like a dropped bundle of firewood.

The wind“Let me in,”

said the wind again, louder, but there was no house left to get into. Two pigs ran down the lane in the dark, towards the one house with a light still on in the window.

The other pigs“Open up! Open up!”

Scene 7 of 8

Inside the brick house, the third pig leans on the door while the other two sit by the stove.

And then the wind came to the brick house, and it blew, and it blew, and it blew. It went round the corners looking for a loose edge and did not find one.

The wind“LET ME IN,”

said the wind.

Your child“No,”

said the third pig, from the other side of the door, and put the kettle on. By midnight the wind had given up and gone to be weather somewhere else.

Scene 8 of 8

In the morning, the third pig shows the first pig how to lay bricks.

So all three pigs slept that night in the brick house, two of them on cushions on the floor, one of them saying they had been very, very lucky. In the morning the first pig looked at the walls for a long time.

The other pigs“Tomorrow,”

he said,

The other pigs“teach me to lay bricks.”

And the third little pig, who had waited a whole day to hear that, said yes.

The Three Little Pigs

One grown-up, one child, four parts