Lon Po Po

Lon Po Po | Ed Young | Traditional Lit. | Caldecott Medal | ages 6-9|

Shang, Tao, and Paotze stay at home as their mother leaves to visit their grandmother on her birthday. After the mother leaves, the wolf comes knocking on their door pretending to be their grandmother to let him in so he could eat the three sisters. Unknowingly, the girls let him in, but soon the oldest sister, Shang realizes it is not their grandmother. Cleverly they find a way to escape being eaten by the wolf and trick him into believing magic ginkgo nuts from a tree that will make him live forever. The three sisters climb the tree and together they defeat the wolf. Soon after, they run home, lock the doors, and sleep for the night. The next day their mother returns with food from their real grandmother and they tell her all that happened while she was gone. 

Lon Po Po is a Red Riding Hood story from China, translated and illustrated by Ed Young. This book has won the Caldecott Medal and greatly shows how traditional literature have been passed down from generations and can have many versions. The appropriate grade levels for this story are second to fourth grade. I believe there’s too many words for the younger children to try to read on their own and the story may be too explicit for them as well. I wouldn’t want to use this in my classroom because the story mentions the three sisters killing the wolf, which sounds too harsh, and a sensitive matter. I believe it’s best to avoid the possibility of conflict towards animal rights between the students and their parents.