Funny fractured fairy tales are my jam, especially if you add in an Asian twist. What books have I left out? Thanks for your suggestions!
9 Funny Asian Fractured Fairy Tales
Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Swartz, illustrated by Dan Santat
The three little pigs started a ninja school and now the wolf can’t catch any prey. He joins the dojo to get some fighting skills and then goes out into the wood where he finds Little Red Riding Hood. Turns out she went to ninja school too. Because he can’t defeat Ninja Red, the wolf decides to go vegetarian and takes up yoga instead. There is also The Three Ninja Pigs, and Hansel and Gretel Ninja Chicks in this fun series.[picture book, ages 4 and up]
Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim, illustrated by Grace Zong
In this riff on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldy Luck is a Chinese American girl who upsets her panda family neighbors. She eats their congee, sits in their chairs, and messes up their beds. Her conscience gets to her and she returns to make amends, just in time to help the pandas celebrate Chinese New Year. This is a fun picture book for kids to compare with the original fairy tale. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young
In this Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf comes to the door of the children when their mother leaves to visit their grandmother. The eldest figures out the wolf’s ruse and has a plan of her own to save them. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Y
There are shades of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Gingerbread Man in this fun fractured fairy tale that is actually based on a Danish folktale. The Li family are the richest family in Beijing, cheating everyone of their money. When Ming trades eggs for a rusty wok, fortunes change hands due to this magical runaway wok. It even cleans up corruption! [fractured fairy tale picture book, ages 4 and up]
Jiro’s Pearl by Daniel Powers
A take off of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jiro needs to sell the last of their rice to buy medicine for his sick grandmother. On the way to the village, he loses the rice while trying to catch a toad. The pharmacist, yakuzaishi, advises him to talk to a fish in the middle of the bay. Jiro’s adventures get stranger and stranger but when he follows the advice he’s given, miracles happen. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
The Chang family only has enough rice flour to make one rice cake for the entire family on Chinese New Year. They wait in anticipation as it’s cooking, but when it’s done, it springs to life and races away. The family chases it all over the village until it runs into an elderly, hungry woman. The youngest boy offers to share it with her. The old woman ends up eating the entire cake but when the family returns, they find a surprise waiting for them. This is Stone Soup meets The Gingerbread Man. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
The Seven Chinese Sisters by Kathy Tucker, illustrated by Grace Lin
This fractured fairy tale takes the folk tale of the Seven Chinese Brothers and modernizes it with sisters with skills such as counting very high, soup making, mastery of karate, and riding a scooter. These skills are utilized in rescuing the smallest sister from a dragon. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
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Oh, I like the Seven Chinese Sisters. What a modernized take with some gender equality in the mix. The Runaway Rice Cake sounds cute too.
I grew up reading the Seven Chinese Brothers.
We love fractured fairy tales and read just about all of these. My youngest son really enjoyed Ninja Red Riding Hood and The Three Ninja Pigs
Hi Mother of 3,
Those are fun books!