Pinocchio

The story of Pinocchio, the puppet who wants to be a real boy, the loving Gepetto, the energetic Talking Cricket, and all the other delightful characters come to life in a beautifully illustrated rendition complete with colorful paper collage artwork.

Kindergarten-Grade 4?To adapt this classic story from the length of the standard versions, thus counteracting the movie images of the Disney animation and the current live-action film, takes an exceptional individual. Young has achieved almost complete success. The artist's note explains his approach; he uses the stock-in-trade of the Italian theater, commedia dell' arte, to capture the slapstick and exaggeration of the adventures. The result is a theatrical and readable presentation with chapters defined as scenes. Overall, the large-format book is attractive, with paper-collage illustrations emphasized with textured surfaces and backgrounds. Edges of shapes are deliberately not glued flat to add dimension and attention to technique. Quibbles are that on some spreads, the black text on dark backgrounds is hard to read, and that details in the illustrations don't always match descriptions in the story. Pinocchio's "little jacket of flowered paper" is a solid green color throughout; on the final page, when Pinocchio turns into a boy, "the bright face of a real boy looked at him with wide-awake blue eyes, dark brown hair..."?but both are painted black. This picture-book rendition should not replace standard versions such as the Macmillan edition (illus. by Attilo Mussino, 1937, '69), the Macmillan Classics (illus. by Naiad Einsel, 1963), or the Knopf edition (illus. by Roberto Innocenti, 1988). But the combination of the story's popularity with Young's name recognition and appealing cover will draw a large audience.?Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

What most readers know of Pinocchio is a wooden puppet whose nose grows from telling lies. This episode--longer than a picture book but shorter than the original tale--is one small chapter in the exploits and adventures of Pinocchio, the boy wannabe. An illustrated adaptation, it follows the original M.A. Murray translation closely, yet succeeds without the long-windedness of the 1892 classic, and with all the rich language, spirited characters, and lively escapades intact. Inspired by the commedia dell'arte, the Italian traveling street theater of Collodi's time, Young (Night Visitors, 1995, etc.) has created scenes that authentically capture the playlike quality of the story. Reminiscent of his colorful cut-paper collage in Seven Blind Mice (1993), the array of characters and images cleverly reflect a stage production, complete with double-page spreads that act as scenery backdrops. It's an energetic rendition that invites the audience to meet again the mischievous puppet with all his foibles, setting the stage for an Oz-like ending that reaffirms the power of good. (Fiction. 6+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3^-5, younger for reading aloud. Ed Young presents an illustrated edition of this famous Italian fantasy. Although his version of the story is considerably shorter than Collodi's text, it retains a sense of the adventure, humor, and pathos that made the original Pinocchio a classic. In the full-color, collage artwork, Young builds scenes from deftly cut and composed materials that include cloth as well as textured, painted, and printed papers highlighted with pastels. The exaggeration of the characters' shadows in several scenes makes good use of the collage medium and significantly heightens the dramatic effects of the artwork. A handsome, large-format volume, this edition will attract readers looking for an abridged and well-illustrated version of Pinocchio. Carolyn Phelan