The kids and I just finished Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The version we had contained beautiful illustrations and Faythe sat next to me the whole time so she could see the pictures. During my one-on-one school time with Dyllan we read a short snippet of the story and it intrigued us so we got the whole story from the library. I can't believe how many books I didn't read as a child. A lot of the books I read to the kids are new to me, too. Pinocchio is the story of a puppet who makes bad choices. He skips out on school, gets tricked because of his foolishness, lies, goes to prison, makes bad friends, doesn't work, fights, runs away, and more. There are times when he tries to be good--he repents often, but eventually goes back to his same mistakes. Several times I stopped my reading and questioned what makes the fairy decide it is OK for Pinocchio to become a real boy. You learn the answer in the end. He is forgiven because "boys who take care of their parents, and help them when they are poor and sick, are deserving of great praise and affection, even if they are not models of obedience and good behavior."
There are many lessons to learn from Pinocchio and I love how the author talks to the reader helping them understand the messages that he is trying to get across.
I don't think I have ever read the original...I would probably be surprised by all the books I haven't read either. An interesting point: you don't have to be perfect, just take care of their parents & help them when they are poor & sick. That is probably true for all of us.
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