To tell the truth, Carlo Collodi didn’t know what he’d come up with. Carlo was responsible for a little boy who grew up to live a separate life from the poor man who raised him. The poor man was named Geppetto. The little boy was called Pinocchio.
The story that Carlo Collodi began writing in 1880 was Le Aventure di Pinocchio (The Adventures of Pinocchio, or Pinocchio’s Adventure). A new chapter was published in each new issue of an Italian newspaper designed for children’s reading. It was popular then and later the story took on a life of its own.
But it all happened after the author’s death.
From that late-1800s version followed countless variations and retellings. Of course, Carlo Collodi could never have known about Jiminy Cricket and the Disney classic.
I’ve always been fond of the pop-up books, and there have been quite a good number of various editions over the years.
The trouble with pop-ups is – they usually wind up popping-out. Energetic and enthusiastic young readers can rid a book of its usually-fragile pop-ups in a few readings. So, I was surprised when a 45-year-old kid’s book came into the shop with all the major pop-ups intact.
I had to try them out, of course. They are the videogames of my toddler-hood: no batteries required but plenty of on-page action. The best ones usually went first. They were the big, big pop-ups that could knock an unsuspecting kid’s head back, even if it was just from surprise.
My head snapped back a little when the whale popped-up, chasing down little Pinocchio. The story gets a little murky for me at that point. I think the hee-hawing donkey-boys on Lost Island always gave me such a fright that I developed an inability to lie.
Hee-haw!
Click on the image for a bigger whale bearing down on the marionette turned Live-boy, a story that took on a life of its own after the death of Carlo Collodi in 1890.
You can drop around $8-thousand for the 1892 First Edition in English. Or spend $6.95 for a handsome little 1968 model, pop-up.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 S Main St, Broken Arrow OK!