Pinocchio

November 1, 2002
The publisher has timed this unabridged edition of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, illus. by Gris Grimly, to hit bookstores just before Roberto Benigni's (Life Is Beautiful) feature film based on the book. Grimly applies the same off-kilter, skewed perspectives that made his Monster Museum so memorable; in his pen-and-inks, Pinocchio resembles a wooden bird with his round belly, twig-like legs, beaky nose and bead-like eyes. A scene of Candlewick and Pinocchio changing into donkeys will likely raise goosebumps.

June 1, 2001
As he did with Peter Pan and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, vintage picture book collector Cooper Edens here selects an assortment of early 20th-century artwork to pay homage to Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. Vittorio Accornero's austere illustration of the "beautiful Little Girl" who is moved to free Pinocchio, strung from a tree, Gianbattista Galizzi's painting of the Island of the Busy Bees, and Maria Kirk's portrait of the hero with donkey ears, taken together, reveal a cohesive new image of one of children's literature's most memorable characters.

August 30, 1993
Most children today know Pinocchio as a cherub-faced Disney creation brought to life by a wish on a distant star. Adapted from Collodi's 1883 work, this sparkling edition reintroduces a much more intriguing hero--``a piece of wood with a mind of its own.'' Under the ministrations of the long-suffering Geppetto, this troublesome twig is refashioned into ``a grand puppet.'' A brisk tale of adventure ensues, told with sly humor, merriness and a good dose of morality. Dynamic illustrations carry a suggestion of animation, while an unusual dappling technique adds a solid warmth. Pinocchio is depicted as a taper-nosed Pierrot, vacillating between hope and delusion as he rushes headlong from one bad decision to the next. With his unusually long proboscis, he is both a figure of fun and an endearing protagonist. Sometimes captured as a nightmare vision, always fantastical, a dreamy atmosphere suffuses this work, while carnival colors reinforce the sense of madcap adventure and fun. All ages.

September 2, 1996
Midway on the spectrum between the harshness of Carlo Collodi's (1826-1890) original and the sweet, sanitized Disney version lies this thoughtful adaptation. Young (Seven Blind Mice) views the story theatrically, in an author's note emphasizing the influence of the commedia dell'arte, and dividing the story itself into "scenes." But other than this structural tinkering, Young stays true to the plot, deviating from the original only to smooth out the rough edges for a modern audience. For example, he includes Pinocchio's near-fatal hanging, yet omits morbid details. The stylized cut-paper, fabric and chalk illustrations, however, are problematic. While inventive and skilled, they have little emotional appeal and may even be unsettling with their dissonant, clashing colors. Earlier versions by Roberto Innocenti and Chris McEwan are more visually pleasing, but Young's storytelling is the most in tune with a young audience. Ages 6-up.

January 5, 2004
Fanelli (First Flight
) provides abstract illustrations for a deluxe edition of Collodi's cautionary tale. Distilled into pithy chapters by translator Rose, the book comes packaged in a paper-over-board edition with an attractive postmodern slipcase that plays up the hero's famous proboscis. Pinocchio, carved from a talking hunk of wood by his "father," Geppetto, starts life as a careless and gullible marionette. His first impulse is to run away from home, whereupon he falls in with scoundrels, sermonizers and a generous Blue Fairy. This version preserves all the slapstick violence and didacticism of the 19th-century original, in which Pinocchio makes mistakes and develops his moral sense, but the text also plays up a more modern mindset. This picaresque narrative makes a strange partner to Fanelli's up-to-date paper collages and loose pen-and-brush sketches. The artist does not emphasize the contrast between the puppet and his fleshly human and animal acquaintances. Everyone looks equally cartoonish (most often viewed in profile), which on the one hand alludes to Collodi's social satire (hypocritical humans have much in common with ignorant puppets) but on the other hand distances readers from the characters. With its variegated layout and wordless full-bleed spreads, the volume most resembles an artist's handmade book; Fanelli draws on lined or graph paper, and her inset, blue-black ink images seem doodled directly on the pages and margins. This modish treatment, a far cry from conventional versions of the classic, may be best suited to collectors; it makes a likely companion to Lane Smith's Pinocchio the Boy, or Incognito in Collodi
. Ages 7-up.

February 18, 2002
Iassen Ghiuselev brings the famous puppet-turned-boy to life in Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, trans. by Carol della Chiesa. His b&w drawings possess the detail and craftsmanship of woodcuts, his paintings a psychological depth that reaches far past the story's events, such as one of Pinocchio hanging from a tree, as if lynched. Theatrical lighting creates a chiaroscuro effect.