Multicultural Lit- Lon Po Po

Lon Po Po, by Ed Young, is a Chinese version of the familiar Red Riding Hood story. In this story the wolf comes to the house while the mother is gone and only the young children are home. The children outwit the wolf many times to ultimately get the wolf to fall out of a tree, ending his life. This version of the story incorporated many Chinese traditions and language. I studied this text in our methods course and learned how using variants of the story helps build schema. It helps students actively engage to make sense of the text. Students express familiarity with the text, and some can project personal experiences onto the story. Reading the variants of a story stimulates children to connect the language, story features, and illustrations with those of another text. Students get a broader understanding of the genre of text, and comparing the variants enhance students schema of the culture.