Read the fairy tale Tobia loves
Pinocchio
A wooden puppet carved by a lonely woodcarver, a nose that grows with every fib, and a long journey home: the best-loved story ever written in the Italian language.
In a small workshop in a Tuscan village, an old woodcarver named Geppetto was shaping a puppet from a block of pine. He wanted a little wooden boy he could take with him around the world. Before he had even finished carving the mouth, the puppet began to laugh, and Geppetto knew at once that this was no ordinary piece of wood. He named him Pinocchio.
Geppetto had almost nothing, but he sold his only warm coat to buy Pinocchio a schoolbook, hoping the puppet would learn to read. A wise old cricket who lived in the workshop told Pinocchio that boys who will not listen to good advice grow up to be very sorry. Pinocchio did not want to hear it, and the next morning, on the way to school, he traded the book for a ticket to a puppet show instead.
The fox and the cat
On the road Pinocchio met a fox and a cat, who had heard that he was carrying a few gold coins. They told him about a magical field where a buried coin would grow overnight into a whole tree of gold. Pinocchio, who wanted to bring riches home to Geppetto, believed every word, and by morning the coins and the two strangers were gone.
A kind fairy with hair the color of the sky found Pinocchio and took him in. When she asked what had become of his coins, he was ashamed, and he lied. With each lie his nose grew longer, until it was so long he could not turn around in the room. He cried and promised to tell the truth, and the fairy, seeing that he meant it, set his nose right again.
The Land of Toys
Pinocchio truly meant to go to school after that. But a boy he knew told him about a place called the Land of Toys, where there were no lessons and no clocks, only games from morning until night. Pinocchio told himself he would stay just a few days. The days turned into weeks, and he forgot all about Geppetto waiting at home.
One morning Pinocchio woke to find that he had grown long grey ears, and he understood, too late, why the Land of Toys had no school. He ran from that place as fast as he could. When at last he reached the village, the workshop was empty. A neighbor told him that Geppetto had built a little boat and set out to sea to look for him, and had not come back.
Inside the great fish
Pinocchio dived into the water to find him. He swam for a day and a night, until an enormous fish opened its mouth and swallowed him whole. And there, in the dark, sitting by the light of a small candle, was Geppetto, who had been swallowed weeks before. They held on to each other and wept, and then Pinocchio said that they were not going to stay there. While the great fish slept, they climbed out over its tongue and swam for the shore.
After that, Pinocchio went to work. He carried water, he wove baskets, he sat up at night nursing Geppetto back to health, and he saved every coin for the two of them. He did not do it to become anything; he did it because Geppetto had sold his coat for a schoolbook and had sailed into the sea for him. One morning Pinocchio woke and found that he was no longer made of wood. He was a real boy, and he had been becoming one, quietly, for a long time.
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Ninna Nanna di Barberino
Play this softly while you read Pinocchio aloud: a traditional handplayed lullaby from Barberino, in the hills of Tuscany, the same countryside where the story was written.
More stories, more lullabies
This is one tale in a growing collection of traditional stories from around the world, each one paired, where we can, with a real lullaby from the same culture.