The Three Little Pigs Story for Kids

The Three Little Pigs: the full story

Part One · Straw, Sticks and Bricks

Once there were three little pigs.

"Go and make a home," said Mother Pig.

The first pig made a house of straw.

The second pig made a house of sticks.

The third pig made a house of bricks.

It was slow work. But it was strong.

Then along came the big bad wolf.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!"

"No, no! By the hair of my chinny chin chin!"

"I'll huff and I'll puff! I'll blow your house in!"

He huffed and he puffed. Down went the straw!

The pig ran fast to the stick house.

"Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!"

"No, no! By the hair of our chinny chin chins!"

He huffed and he puffed. Down went the sticks!

The two pigs ran to the brick house.

The wolf huffed and puffed. He puffed and huffed.

But the brick house did not fall down!

So the wolf went up on the roof.

"I will come down the chimney!" he said.

The pigs put a pot on the fire.

Down came the wolf. Splash, into the pot!

"Ow, ow, ow!" He ran off with a hot tail.

He never came back. The pigs were safe!

About this story

A free Grade 1 story from the Peabody library, Level 1. It has 24 short pages and about 200 words, so it reads in a few minutes.

The short version

Three little pigs each build a house, one of straw, one of sticks and one of bricks. The big bad wolf huffs and puffs and blows down the straw house and the stick house, but the pigs run to the brick house, and it does not fall. When the wolf comes down the chimney, he lands in the pot on the fire and runs away for good.

Quick facts

An old English folk tale. Joseph Jacobs popularised the version most people know in his book English Fairy Tales in 1890.

Jacobs took it from a book by the collector James Halliwell.

Jacobs's famous lines include “No, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin” and “I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.”

Jacobs wrote that the pigs may once have been goat kids, because little pigs have no hair on their chinny chin chins.

In Jacobs's version the wolf eats the first two pigs. In this telling all three pigs get away.

What it teaches

Taking the time to build well keeps you safe.

Where this story comes from

People in England told this for hundreds of years before Joseph Jacobs wrote it down in 1890.

Who wrote The Three Little Pigs?

No one knows who first told it. It is an old English folk tale, and the version many people know comes from Joseph Jacobs, who printed it in English Fairy Tales in 1890 after finding it in a book by James Halliwell. This page is a retelling in Peabody's own words, written for early readers.

Do the pigs get eaten in The Three Little Pigs?

In Joseph Jacobs's 1890 telling, the wolf blows down the straw house and the stick house and eats the first two pigs, and the third pig in the brick house outwits him. In this telling the first two pigs run to the brick house, and all three pigs are safe.

To print it or save it as a PDF, tap the ⓘ button above the story, then “Print this story”.

This is a first reader, so it also prints as a little book or on one page: print this book. For more like it, see beginning reader books.

The Three Little Pigs