Ed Young (arthur and illustrator)
PaperStar Book, 1996 (Part of Penguin Books)
Folklore, Picture Book
2nd-4 Grade
Caldecott Medal winner in 1990
Similarities:
This is a story that is very similar to a folk tale that we all know, Little Red Riding Hood, but this is the Chinese verse of this story. It is similar in that there is a wolf that is trying to get to a little girl, but in this version it is three little girls, Shang, Tao, and Paotze. Also like the American version of this story the wolf is hungry and trying to eat the little girls. The wolf disguises its self as the grandmother in both versions also.
Summary:
When the girls mother leaves to visit their grandmother on her birthday a big wolf sees the mother leave, so later that night the wolf dresses up as an old woman and goes to knock on their door. Pretending to be their "Po Po" or grandmother, the youngest two girls get excited about seeing their grandmother and open the door for the wolf. The wolf is smart and blows out the candle so that no one can see his face, he then acts as if he is tired so they all go and lay down. The eldest daughter, Shang, feels the tail at the edge of the bed but the wolf makes up a story that would explain why it feels like fur and also why he has sharp claws. Shang lit the light and was able to catch a glimpse of the wolf's face before he blew out the light. Shang, being a very smart girl realizes that she must get her and her sisters out of the house and away from the wolf, she asks him if he had ever had gingko nuts. The wolf expresses desire for the nuts but also that "no longer can she climb trees" so Shang suggests that the three of the girls go and get the nuts. So the girls never come down and tell the wolf that he has to come get the nuts in order for them to be magical, so the wolf gets a basket and some rope and throws it to the girls. They "attempt" to bring the wolf up in a basket but keep dropping it until "not only did the wolf bump his head, but he broke his heart to pieces" and was dead. After they made sure that the wolf was dead they climbed down and went to bed and slept. When their mother returned the next day they told her of the wolf who had tried to eat them.
Reaction:
I loved the similarities that were in this book but more so the small and big differences that it had between the American version and this version. I loved how the illustrations were done in panels and that each page had multiple panels to it. I think that it might have been done with oil and or water color, but I am not very sure at this point. I believe a lot of the old traditional Chinese paintings were done with water color so that is perhaps was Young was trying to capture here. I think that perhaps one reason Young might have chosen to do the panels is because, in my opinion, it is very typical of Chinese art, the paintings that I have seen that are traditional Chinese seem to have a panel effect to them if they are not just straight up panels. I loved the lack of detail that was in the background of each of the illustrations and that everything seemed to be very traditional in its look, I think this is great for children so they can see some kind of Chinese art and style. Over all I think that this is a great book to use in the classroom, especially if you compare and contrast it to a different version. You could even do a version other than the American one of Little Red Riding Hood. Having done these different versions of the same basic story you could talk about different cultures and maybe why they were different. When I was looking up stuff about this story I found these links that have different information and activities that go along with this story.
Teaching Links:
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