Lon Popo translated and Illustrated by Ed Young

I chose this book for my traditional literature comparison because Professor O handed it to me. Hey at least I'm honest. Anyway, this is a telling of a Chinese folktale that is very similar to "Little Red Riding Hood." And although there are many similarities, mostly that the story is about a wolf that tries to fool a girl (or girls) into thinking that he is in fact her (or their) Grandmother (or Popo), it has differences that can't be ignored. For one, instead of one girl, there are three. For another, the grandmother lives with the girls and leaves them alone, instead of one girl going to visit her grandmother. Also in this version the wolf does not eat anyone, but instead gets tricked in falling out of a tree until it is dead. Pretty interesting how the same basic story can be so dramatically different between cultures. I also have to hand it to Ed Young because his paintings for the book were phenomenal. The only thing I would say is that you should probably read "Little Red Riding Hood" first, because other wise it might seem a little bit confusing. All in all I liked this book and think it is great read for kids.