TELL THE TRUTH, B.B. WOLF

His social standing having been restored in Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf (2007), the old folktale bad guy is invited back to the library—this time to tell the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” Overcoming his understandable reluctance after Rumpelstiltskin, fellow resident at the Villain Villa Senior Center, advises him to put his own spin on the episode, Wolf trots out a version involving unfortunate accidents and careless, aggressive pigs. Unfortunately, the aforementioned porkers are actually in the storytime audience, and before you can say “not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin,” they’re up in his face, demanding the truth and an apology. As before, Seibold supplies big, droll digitally painted scenes featuring a hangdog Wolf in a hideous orange plaid suit and a supporting cast of familiar characters from Pinocchio (“Isn’t that wolf’s snout getting longer?”) to the Little Engine (“I think it is. I think it is”). In the end Wolf tootles off hinting that there may be future “Fairy Tales Remodeled.” That’s good news, as all fans of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and its teeming clan will agree. (Picture book/folktale/spoof. 6-8)