Lon Po Po by Ed Young
Summary
This story is a retelling of the famous tale Little Red Riding Hood from China. The story has three sisters named Shang, Tao, and Paotze who are left home alone by their mother who goes to run their grandmother some items. A cunning wolf in the forest watches the mom leave the children their and makes its plan. The wolf dresses up like the children's Po Po and gets the children to let her in the house. Things seem normal until "PoPo" suggests they all go to sleep. The children feels how hairy the wolf's paw are and then the oldest Shang catches a glimpses of the wolf's reflective eyes. She is the most clever and tells the wolf about a Gingko nut and how its so tender and tastes as soft as baby's flesh. This excites the wolf so the children go outside and climb the tree to pick these nuts. The wolf grows impatient and calls out to the children. Shang responds that the nut is only fresh and magical if picked directly from the tree. So Shang tells the wolf to go get the basket and rope from the house that way they can pull the wolf up to eat the gingko nut. The first time Shang pulls alone and drops the wolf. The next time Shang and tao both pull and the get a little farther but still drop the wolf from the tree. The last time all three sisters pull until the wolf almost reaches the top and then they all let go. This is the fatal blow for the wolf so the children climb down the tree, go back into the house, lock the door, and peacefully fall asleep. The next morning when their mother returns from their real Popo's the girls tell their mom all about the wolf.
Evaluation
This retelling of such a classic story from a different culture is so cool. I enjoyed the cleverness of the wolf being matched to the cleverness of the children. I personally would not use this story in my classroom because I plan on teaching high schoolers.
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