I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this book, since I bought it simply for the Maurice Sendak illustrations, but it was an absolute delight! Marshall mashes up two classic fairytales (the stories of the three little little pigs and swan lake) to create a hilarious little gem of a story. His tale follows a wolf, hungry and wandering the city looking for fulfillment in places that he doesn’t know, setting us up for an expected “big city” story where our protagonist encounters the unexpected and finds new purpose in his life. For this wolf, the unexpected comes in the form of the theatre, and a play put on by pigs - aptly named Swine Lake. The story doesn’t go into huge amounts of detail about Swan Lake (assuming we know the basic story of enchantment and redemption), but focuses instead on the wolf’s reaction to the play. He enters the theatre thinking that he’ll wait until the right moment and then leap out to eat all the little piggies in the audience and on stage, but instead he is captivated by the action and majesty of the ballet - and especially by the antagonist character, with whom he obviously identifies. The wolf returns home wondering at his unexpected reaction and still hungry, so he returns to the theatre the following night and spends his last meagre coins on a prime ticket to the show, once again thinking that he’ll get a meal out of the pigs. Yet, when the conflict of the play arrives, the wolf leaps out on stage and instead of eating everyone takes the place of the antagonist in the play. He finds a sort of catharsis through dancing, and is pleasantly surprised when he reads rave reviews of his performance - no one figured out that a wolf was in their midst! But we are left not knowing the final outcome of his story: will the wolf return to the theatre to dance or to feast? Clearly he is not yet done with his theatrical escapades! ( )

Just didn't work for me. Maybe Marshall died before he could pull the text together - it reads more like an outline here. The pictures are fun, and really help the story make more sense... but again, in my personal opinion, they aren't enough to make this book appealing. I'm giving it 3 stars (not 2) because I like some of the details (Pigs do fly" N.Y. Times, the Old-Fashioned Bookstore going out of business signs, the wolf's landlady...).
" ( )

The main character from the Nursery Tale "Red Riding Hood", the Wolf, was the main character in this book. The Wolf sees an advertisement for "Swine Lake", a play starring pigs. He was excited to go see it and planned on eating the pigs, but got so enthralled in the play itself that he didn't eat one. He went back the next day and bought another ticket to see the play again, and got wrapped up in the play and danced on the stage with one of the pigs. He left the pig backstage and ran home. He made the movie review in the newspaper! Precious book. ( )

Printed in 1999, after Sendak's beloved friend James Marshall had died, grieving, Sendak worked diligently to give justice to the story line.

A wolf who loves pigs roams around in an unfamiliar part of town. Hungry and smelling pigs, he follows his nose to the Swine Lake Boarshoi Ballet threatre.

Aiming to eat the cast of characters, instead, the wolf becomes mesmerized by the play.

Caught up in the pagentry of emotion, during his attendance at the play, the following night, he jumps on stage and dances.

Reading rave reviews the next night, "he executed a couple of flashy dance steps!"

This was a lovely book, highly creative in the message of how art can tame the most savage beast! ( )

When a lean and mangy wolf stumbles into the Boarshoi Ballet, he finds tasty pigs a-plenty, twirling and whirling in a performance of "Swine Lake." Faced with all those luscious porkers, whats a hungry wolf to do? Well, something totally surprising, as it turns out.
Pure fun from Marshall and Sendak--an incomparable duo!***SRC Quiz***