Pinocchio is a fictional story telling the tale of a young puppet's adventures to becoming a boy. Some of the characters' names include Pinocchio, Gepetto, Alidoro, Master Antonio, Melampo, and Punchinello. The spellings of these names led me to believe that this story is an Italian region folktale. Other names given to animal characters are matter of fact, such as Dolphin, Cat, Wolf, Dogfish, Talking Cricket, Snail, and Owl. Every
human character has an Italian name, and with that stated, just the name of Pinocchio foretells the puppet's metamorphosis.
The story tells the ups and downs of Pinocchio's changing from an
irresponsible, ignorant, egotistical (yet innocent) puppet to a caring,
responsible and knowing boy. This journey takes almost three years for him
to complete. Within those three years, he visits places such as many
woods, fields, homes, strange towns (such as "Trap for Blockheads"), graves,
the "Land of Boobies," beaches, and even the inside of a whale!
My favorite part in Pinocchio is when he finds his father in the great
whale. It's found in the very last section of the book, right before
Pinocchio becomes a boy. Pinocchio ends up getting swallowed by the whale
and meets a tuna fish named Tunny inside of the whale's stomach. After
talking a bit, Pinocchio notices a light farther down in the belly and
decides to see what it is. It is his father, Gepetto! Pinocchio finds out
that his father had survived a shipwreck and was swallowed along with the
ship's cargo into Dogfish, the whale. I like this part the best because the
reunion between father and son warms the heart.
Although most readers probably would assume that this book follows the story of Walt Disney's Pinocchio, they would be in for quite a surprise. Disney's story cuts out many subplots involved in this book. In Disney's story Pinocchio sings a lot (adding drama to the visual movie), while in Collodi's version Pinocchio talks a lot (adding drama to the
audible story) and spends a lot of precious time regretting his unintelligent actions.
I believe that Pinocchio is a young adult's story because it has high moral values and flows easily. The chapters are set up so that each ends as a "cliffhanger" and leads the reader to want to know what happens next.
- review by Kathy
