A Chinese Red-Riding Hood Story

The cover of this book caught my attention. A wolf with bright white eyes stares at you. And that is only the start, as the striking artwork continues throughout the story, and even won this book the Caldecott Medal in 1990.

Lon Po Po A Red-Riding Hood Story From China, by Ed Young, is indeed similar in many ways to Red-Riding Hood Americans are familiar with. It involves a wolf acting as a grandma and a child figuring out who the "grandma" really is.

The story starts out with three girls in China whose mother is leaving to visit their grandma for her birthday. She tells her daughters that she won't be back that evening and they must lock the doors tight and not let anyone in. But a wolf overhears the conversation and after the mother leaves he knocks on the door saying he is their Po Po (their grandma). The two younger girls, Tao and Paotze, want to let her in, but Shang, the eldest is weary of her grandma whose voice is very low, although Po Po explains she has a cold. They do end up letting the Po Po and she blows out the candle so the girls can't see her and then tells the girls she is tired so they all go to bed together. Shang says to the wolf that she is surprised that her Po Po has hairy feet (when she touches the tail) and thorny hands (when she touches her claws) which is similar to the American version. Shang has an idea to get rid of the wolf. The three girls climb up a tree and tell the wolf there are wonderful nuts and that their grandma must join them. They get a basket to bring up the wolf, but they keep dropping it until the wolf dies. They scramble back in the house and when their mother returns they tell them about their visit from Po Po.

There is a good two paragraphs on each page so it is easy to get a full understanding of what is going on throughout the story. The type is relatively small and doesn't cover up anything important in the illustrations.

I liked the story, because it is good to teach children that you should listen to your parents about staying safe (and not opening the door). Also it shows Shang being smart and creative in her idea of how to get rid of the wolf.

The illustrations that accompany the story are wonderful. They are done in charcoal or pastels. There is a lot of shading and many pictures have a wonderful feeling to them. In one the children are shown with a shadow of a wolf above them which I really liked. All the pictures are a little blurry, due to the medium used, but the wolf looks very realistic.

So realistic in fact, that a younger child might be scared of the illustrations. One shows the wolf's fangs very well. The killing of the wolf might also bother some children. Those are really the only cons to this story.

Overall I highly recommend this book for children ages 5-8. The artwork is wonderful and the story is familiar, although different, and can inspire a conversation with a child about the differences and similarities. Plus it is a story from another country which (as you've probably noticed from my other reviews) always makes a story 'cooler' in my mind. Check out this well done story today!