Pinocchio starts life as a block of wood who is then carved into a marionette to be a son for the good Geppetto but Pinocchio turns out to be a very bad boy indeed. He runs off and follows bad advice again and again and again breaking the heart of his father, Geppetto, and the Fairy with the Blue Hair. He ends up almost being burned to heat the puppeteer's dinner, almost killed by assassins, swindled out of money for his papa, locked in jail, accused of murder, turned into a donkey, and eventually swallowed by a enormous dogfish. Of course, in the end, he learns his lesson and becomes a real boy and a joy to his papa.
Up until now, I'd only ever been familiar with the Disneyfied version of the story so it was a shock to me just how awful Pinocchio was. He starts life by locking Geppetto out of his own home, squishing the Talking Cricket, and then falling asleep and burning his feet off. There are many similarities between the stories but so much more happens to him due to his own follies in the book. It definitely seems like it was written to impart better behaviors on little boys. What made reading this such a treat though is that I was reading the book that was in my husband's grandfather's nursery to my son. Such a cool thing to do!
Page count: 157p/16,109p ytd/231,043p lifetime
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