This is not Walt Disney's Pinocchio! With the help of the translators' annotations, Pinocchio's misadventures come to life in multiple lessons. The annotations help explain the context of the author's writing, language, and Italian culture and history to flesh out this mischievous character I thought I knew.

This was the first book I read to kick off our Inaugural Soderberg Summer Reading Retreat. My sister Johanna, and niece Vivian, flew down to Boise to join Vivian, and I for our retreat with the exclusive activity being reading. Over the week we each read the same book, as well as a book that was chosen by one of the other readers and purchased from our local book store. I was assigned Pinochio by Johanna.

The book is certainly for kids, but in the same way the original version of fairy tales are often much darker than their modern depictions, this was as well. The entire book was driven by fear of death as well as grim mortal ends for various characters. I think it not much of a spoiler to tell you that within the first four chapters, Pinochio murders the Talking Cricket for trying to give him moral advice. There is also a lynching, and the magical fairy is shown to be the ghost of a dead child.

What struck me about the book was how bizarre it was. It was often incredibly predictable with its fable style and obvious morals, but then Collodi would take a random leap, and our character would be in the most unpredictable situation due to his indiscretion or mistake. I found myself invested and consistently frustrated by Pinochio's sins, and I found that to be remarkable due to the absurdity of the story.

Overall I would consider this a quick and fun read. The proverbial style paired with the bizarre and engaging story telling will keep anyone engaged the entire time.

Conoscevo solo la storia trasposta in formati televisivi o cinematografici, ed ero rimasto sempre incuriosito da quale potesse essere la storia originale, quanto se ne potessero distaccare.

Finalmente ho colmato questa lacuna, spinto dall'edizione Ippocampo a cura dei MinaLima.

Per quanto riguarda la storia in sé ho apprezzato che si sia mantenuto il tono "dialettale" della lingua di Collodi a fine ottocento, con termini che mi fanno pensare ai discorsi degli anziani qui in zona, o al parlato di certe altre parti della Toscana.
E mi sono piaciute moltissimo le peripezie del povero burattino scapestrato e incapace di prendere buone decisioni... le sue peripezie e anche la sua evoluzione, lenta ma decisa: comincia prendendo in giro il padre, colpendolo e fuggendo via da lui, e finisce salvandolo e prendendosene cura con maturità e responsabilità, dopo aver comunque passato svariate disavventure sempre però cominciate con degli scrupoli morali dovuti al non volergli dare un dispiacere (a lui e alla fata, certo).

E' zeppo di morali e di insegnamenti detti e ripetuti allo sfinimento, ma del resto era pubblicato a puntate su una rivista per ragazzini a fine ottocento, il suo scopo dichiarato era insegnare loro qualcosa su come comportarsi, e direi che è riuscito perfettamente a raggiungerlo.
In più, aiutato da una versione come sempre edulcorata della Disney, ha piantato solide radici nell'immaginario collettivo: tutti sanno cosa significhi quando si parla di un Grillo Parlante, o del Gatto e la Volpe, o di Lucignolo. Tutti sanno che il paese dei Balocchi non esiste, e che i soldi non spuntano sugli alberi, e che se dici le bugie ti si allunga il naso (o no?).

Sono rimasto però un po' deluso dal contributo di MinaLima, me lo aspettavo più invadente, con più inserti interattivi, invece si è trattato per la maggior parte di illustrazioni in apertura di capitolo con il soggetto del capitolo stesso rappresentato come scena teatrale di burattini.
In linea con la storia, certo, ma mi immaginavo molto di più.
Anche lo stile usato non mi ha entusiasmato, peccato.

Disney's Pinocchio was the first film my parents took me to see and I didn't care for it. I've tried to watch it several times since then and still can't sit through it. The book is a very different animal - far more brutal and less sentimental - but I'm not sure that I like it much either. Perhaps it has something to do with my preferring puppets to naughty boys...

3.5

Un libro de fácil lectura y con bastantes enseñanzas, pienso que puede entrar en el género juvenil pero debería tener una observación que se debe leer bajo la supervisión de un adulto porque es un libro que debe ser explicado muy minuciosamente para que los niños puedan entender la enseñanza que hay tras cada acto.

‘Pinocchio’ by Carlo Lorenzini, aka Carlo Collodi, is shocking on so many levels for me! I watched the entertaining animated Disney movie several times while growing up. This book, the fantasy fairy tale the Disney movie is based on, is darker and mean. The story is chopped up (pun intended) into thirty or so absurd slapstick sketches, each told in one, sometimes in two short chapters. I was strongly reminded of [b:Candide|19380|Candide|Voltaire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1345060082l/19380._SY75_.jpg|2833018].

Many classic 19th-century children’s books of fantasy (which Disney has edited into genteel children’s movies) inevitably, in dozens of adventurous fantastical scenes which follow each other quickly in chapter after chapter, explain how things supposedly are in the world with vividly terrifying acts of abandonment, betrayal, starvation, torture, enslavement, dismemberment and horrific murders!

‘Pinocchio’ is bringing it, too. There are moral messages behind the entertaining horror and violence. In ‘Pinocchio’, lots of bad things happen, really really bad things, because the wooden puppet boy skips school, avoids hard work and disobeys his parents. Pinocchio always intends to obey his father Geppetto, and later in the book, his foster mother, a blue-colored fairy. But somehow, the lure of a possible adventure, or the promise of money easily earned, or wanting to believe in stories like that of planting a coin will grow into a money tree, or invitations to play rowdy games with other bad boys always wins out over the good advice of his parents. He consistently prefers to goof off, play games, go to the fair, see dead things (I remember the dead things being an attraction like that in my childhood - a squashed animal on the road would get surrounded and poked by sticks by every boy kid on my block).

Pinocchio gets into trouble over and over and over again because he has absolutely no self-control over himself. His noble father’s advice, sacrifice and love is ignored. The fairy’s acts of kindnesses are wasted by him. Pinocchio prefers to believe in the stories the shallow new acquaintances and the sly talking animals, the bedraggled hobos and the other bad boys, tell him. He wants to be convinced to avoid school and work. He wants to believe their lies of only having a little fun (for just a few hours, just this once) if he joins them instead of going to school.

However, he always ends up in hot water - once literally - when he follows the advice of his bad friends. He gets whipped, almost cooked, burned, hanged, beaten, and robbed. In the process of being tricked and abused over and over, he also gives to his loved ones a great many financial losses and emotional pain since he loses what they gift him with. Both Geppetto and the Blue Fairy suffer near-deaths which are down to Pinocchio’s actions.

No matter what your age, I think today’s readers should classify a book like this as a dark fantasy!

I have copied the book blurb because it is accurate:

”This edition has the full text of the original Pinocchio with a mixture of full-page and spot illustrations in black and white integrated in the text, in pen-and-ink style. The ink is sepia brown.

Once there was a lonely woodcutter named Geppetto who dreamed of having a boy of his own. So one day he carved a boy out of wood and named him Pinocchio.

When the puppet comes to life, it's Geppetto's dream come true.

Except Pinocchio turns out to be not such a nice boy after all. Pinocchio enjoys nothing better than creating mischief and playing mean tricks. As he discovers, being bad is much more fun than being good.

For a while, anyway.

Happily for Pinocchio, he will learn that there is much more to being a real boy than having fun.

A magical tale that has entertained children of all ages for more than a hundred years, this lavishly and gorgeously illustrated new edition is the perfect introduction of a timeless classic to a new generation of readers.

And that's no lie!”


Another so-called childrens’ book, [b:Peter Pan|34268|Peter Pan|J.M. Barrie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337714526l/34268._SX50_.jpg|1358908] by J. M. Barrie, has also been made into a sweetened Disney film. I read ‘Peter Pan’ as an adult and I can’t see reading Barrie’s book to many very young children. For most older children, I think ‘Peter Pan’ would be ok. ‘Pinocchio’ definitely is delivering a strong moral message to young children, while ‘Peter Pan’ did not do so, at least not much of an effort was made to do so as far as I could see. But both books are dark and violent. Yet the stories are told in a breezy lighthearted fun manner, especially ‘Pinocchio’, meant to entertain!

Pinocchio’ is seemingly for younger children than ‘Peter Pan’ is; however, I wouldn’t read it to sensitive kids at all. In some ways, despite the quick breeziness of its tone and the fact that it doesn’t linger over each horror, ‘Pinocchio’ appeared to me to be more murderous and sadistic than ‘Peter Pan’. The numbers of horrific near-death incidents are repetitiously violent in chapter after chapter after chapter.

Very few of the characters in ‘Pinocchio’ are female, probably because we women usually have to work much harder than men as a matter of necessity and harsh unforgiving mores, with very little choice in the matter. Women are not as believable as men are in having the choice to become layabouts! Ok, maybe I’m a little prejudiced. Shut up.

The illustrations were generally PG, and very good.

These famous 19th-century novels for children have given me personally much pleasure to read. I am an adult and I liked them. But I prefer ‘Peter Pan’ over ‘Pinocchio’. ‘When I read the Harry Potter series (start here: [b:Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone|72193|Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1)|J.K. Rowling|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170803558l/72193._SX50_SY75_.jpg|4640799]), I was shocked by how dark the Potter novels actually were, often between the lines so to speak, also. The darkness is less obvious for many Potter fans, I think, than in these two 19th-century children’s books! But I guess a lot more kids of that earlier era saw a lot more raw and brutal life being lived than kids of our century (the exceptions being abused kids, whose lives are wrecked in all eras and areas, as well as those suffering in a war).

I wish you good reading, children! Right? Right?

Kind of a weird combo of surreal Talking Animals, moralizing to young boys, and violence. Also, apparently the 2nd-most translated book ever, after the Bible.

Novel yang cocok untuk anak-anak, banyak pelajaran moral.

Spoiler

1.. Tiba-tiba Pinocchio bisa membaca

"I leave you to imagine the puppet's feelingsvwhen he had difficulty spelt out this epitaph "

2. Tiba-tiba Pinocchio sudah meninggalakan rumah lebih dari 3 bulan lebih * waktu benar-benar berlalu dengan cepat*

Large Pigeon, "He was building a little boat for himself, to cross the ocean. For more than three months that poor man has bern going all around the world looking for you. Not having succeeded in finding you he has now taken into his head to go to the distant countries of the new world in search for you."

3. Tiba-tiba Pinocchio tidak suka sekolah, padahal sebelumnya dia ingin sekali bersekolah. Lucunya dia belum sekalipun pergi ke sekolah.

Fairy, "Good boys go willingly to school......"
Pinocchio, "And school gives me pain all over my body. But from today I will change my life."