This version of Little Red Riding starts with a mother who leaves her three daughters at home so she can visit their sick grandmother. While she's away a wolf comes to the house dressed as the grandmother with the intentions of eating the three little girls. The two younger ones believe the wolf is indeed the grandmother and lets him in. The oldest then realizes it's the wolf and devises a plan to get rid of the wolf. She takes her sisters outside and climb the tree that's outside the house that contains a magical nut. Once they get to the top of the tree they tell the wolf about the magical nut, trying to get him to climb the tree.
The three girls try two times to help the wolf up the tree with a basket and rope, dropping him both times. The third time they pull him almost all the way to the top, drop him, and kill him. The girls climb down the tree, get into the house, lock the door and go back to sleep.

This story is similar but so different from the original story. I really enjoyed the difference in this version. Instead of being eaten by the wolf, the three girls trick him, kill him, and survive all on their own.

A Red-Riding Hood story from China. It comes from an ancient oral tradition believed to be over 1000 years old. Beautifully illustrated in a Chinese panel art style with watercolors and pastels. A hungry wolf tries to trick three sisters, telling them he is their Po Po or grandmother. The eldest sister Shang who was the most clever, plays a trick on the wolf. A classic story. ( )

A wolf imitating grandmother Lon Po Po, comes to visit Shang, Tao, and Paotze, whose mother was off visiting the real Lon Po Po. The wolf manages to fake answers to questions about his low voice, late arrival, dark room, tail, and claws. The oldest child tricks the wolf into going outside to eat some Gingko nuts. The children readily climb the tree but the wolf, of course, cannot. They offer to hoist the wolf up in a basket, which they proceed to drop three times until the wolf is dead. The children run to safety of the house and tell their mother and grandmother the tale the next day.

The illustrations had an interesting effect with all of the blending and dark colors to represent the setting being at night. The kids are very intelligent characters and it makes you root for them to outwit the wolf in the end. The setting being in China also sparks the kids’ imagination and broadens their imaginative horizons.

Some things to try in classroom might include reading other variations of Little Red Riding Hood, including the original and making a Venn Diagram that compares and contrasts the different stories. It teaches point of view, in a way. How different people can tell the same story in different ways. We could also explore the Chinese culture, perhaps also trying some food such as Ginkgo.

Lon Po Po is a bit different from the American fairy tale of red riding hood, but the connections are still visible. A wolf posing as the three children's grandma attempts to fool them so he can eat them. The children after discovering it was a wolf trick the wolf and are able to survive.

I feel this to not be a good example of picture books because the pictures did not tell the story. They more or less went along with the story without telling it. They were beautiful paintings though.

In the classroom, I envision this as a social studies lesson about different cultures and how they are similar and different from our very own. I would read them the American version then Lon Po Po...asking them to point out differences and similarities. I could also use this as a fun activity of pasting the parts on the wolf that the oldest sibling points out as different from grandma’s.

Awards and Honors:
Caldecott Medal (1990)
Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Picture Book, 1990)
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (1990) ( )