23rd February Pinocchio Day

Pinocchio Day is celebrated on February 23rd every year. The day marks the anniversary of the release of the Disney film, Pinocchio in 1940. For most of us, Pinocchio is a character from a cartoon or movie who is  a wooden puppet whose pointy nose grows every time he tells a lie. But the original  story written as a novel The Adventures of Pinocchio in Italian by Carlo Lorenzini (pen name Carlo Collodi)  became the first internationally known work of Italian children’s literature. 

The written story is not primarily about lying. Yes, Pinocchio tells lies, but that's just part of his general misbehaviour; he's selfish and unreliable. He's a scamp, a kid who, as we might say today, makes a lot of poor choices. The moment Geppetto carves him out of the miraculous block of wood, Pinocchio runs away and refuses to go home. His antics lead to poor Geppetto’s arrest. 

Look in the school library for some picture book versions of the Pinocchio story. These are in English, but if you have Italian speaking students the story exists in Italian in picture book format.

And if you don't have many versions and like me you do have a very young audience, the display can be 'stretched' by adding books that are cautionary tales about fibbing and not telling the truth.

These are good choices:

• Pig the Fibber by Aaron Blabey

• Kevin  by Rob Biddulph

• A Bike Like Sergio's  by Maribeth Boelts

• The Whopper  by Rebecca Ashdown 

• The Truth According to  Arthur  by David Tazzyman and Tim Hopgood

• Collette's Lost Pet  by Isabelle Arsenault

• The Boy Who Cried Wolf by B.G. Hennessy

• Finn's Little Fibs by Tom Percival

24th November Carlo Collodi (1826 - 1890) Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 - 1924) Yoshiko Uchida (1921 - 1992)

Today there is three authors and the first two are best known for one particular book. The third is better known for her novels but I want to highlight a picture book.

Carlo Collodi was the pen name for Carlo Lorenzini, an Italian journalist who wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio, initially as a serial for an Italian children's magazine. This story of a wooden puppet who comes to life has a big impact on very young children, possibly because of the fact that his nose grows if he tells a lie. The story has inspired many movies, abbreviated versions and spin-offs.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in England, but travelled backwards and forwards several times between there and the USA. She is the author of the classic, The Secret Garden, a book that has also been made into movies and a multitude of variants. Many of the versions have been illustrated by quite illustrious members of the children's literature world.

like Inga Moore and Robert Ingpen.

Yoshiko Uchida was born in USA to Japanesse immigrant parents. During WWII she was taken from her university and interred in a camp because USA no longer felt comfortable about its Japanese immigrants after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. Because of this Yoshiko's many novels focus on the Japanese-American experience and highlight bigotry and racism. However, in my library the book we have is the picture book The Magic Purse which is a retelling of a Japanese folktale. It tells the story of a poor farmer who meets a maiden on his way to the shrine and then takes a detour to the Red Swamp to deliver a message to her parents. Keiko Narahashi illustrated the story with watercolours and bold black strokes that evoke Japanese scroll paintings.