| Thursday, May 21, 2009 |
| Wordy Wednesday |
Ed Young is a wonderful illustrator and author. His Lon Po Po won a Caldecott, but more importantly (to me, anyway) his pictures are so compelling, I can remember the wolf's eye from the story time in my elementary school library. The story isn't lost on Goose either. She loves the panel work he does and the story itself, although we got into a bit of a tiff when I told her it was a Little Red Riding Hood story. To which she said, "No! She's not in that!" and screamed. What can I say, the girl needed nap!
Of course, Lon Po Po is a cautionary tale and teaches values of obedience, cleverness, and togetherness, but what struck me most when I picked this book up was Ed Young's inscription: "To all the wolves of all the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness". It plays to the theme of the Little Red stories, that the wolf is representative of the evil in people. I remember in one of my teaching classes we read several different versions from different countries and in one, rather than being eaten, Red was raped by the wolf. My professor thought that kids could handle reading that version, but I think I'll stick to this less violent version (the wolf, after all, breaks his heart to pieces as a cause of death) for this audience.
If your kids are into other fairy tales, Yeh-Shen is a very colorful version of Cinderella. Replace Bibbidy Bobbity Boo with a magic ghost fish and you have yourself a story! Goose loves the peacock feathers in the vibrant paintings. |
posted by Lori @ 1:42 AM  |
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Name: Lori
Home: Sacramento-ish, California, United States
About Me: I want to make things better.
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