A Boy Made of Wood

Long ago in Italy there lived on old clock-maker named Geppetto. Tick-tick-
TOCK! Tick-tick-TOCK! went all the clocks in his shop. When he worked,
Geppetto felt happy. But when he rested, a sad feeling came over him. “Ah!”
he would think. “All my life and no child to call my own!”  So, one day
Geppetto carved a puppet from wood in the shape of a boy.
 

Thanks to Ramin, 8, Bangladesh

 

He made the arms and legs of the puppet so they could move. He cut and
sewed a nice outfit for it, as if it were a real boy. "I will call you Pinocchio,"
said Geppetto.  That night, Geppetto lay the wooden puppet down onto the
bed.
From out of the window, a big star twinkled bright.  Geppetto looked out the
window to the twinkling star.  
“Bright star,” said Geppetto. “If I could make one wish, it would be for a real
boy of my own.” But of course, he knew that was not possible.
That night, the same big star swooshed right into Geppetto’s room. It
changed into a Blue Fairy!  The Blue Fairy flew over to the bed.
“Little wooden puppet,” said the Blue Fairy. “In the morning, you will be
able to walk and talk like a real boy.” She tapped the puppet one time with
her wand. “And if someday you can prove that you are brave and true, you
may become a real boy.”
Pinocchio’s eyes opened.

Thanks to Ava, 13, NC

 
“One more thing,” said the Blue Fairy. Suddenly. a cricket appeared. He was
dressed mighty fine -and could talk! “Meet the Cricket", said the Blue Fairy.
He will stay with you to help you make wise choices.”
 

Thanks to Ava, 13, NC

 

And with that, the Blue Fairy went swoosh and was gone! Out of the window
and up into the night sky.
When Geppetto woke up the next morning, he said, “I will go take my puppet
out of bed.” But the bed was empty!
“Here I am, Father!” said Pinocchio from the other side of the room.
Geppetto swung around. “What? You can talk?”
“Yep! I am Pinocchio, your boy!”
“How can this be?” said Geppetto in shock. Then he said, “But who cares?”
He rushed over and swept the wooden puppet into his arms. “Pinocchio, my
son!” he said in great happiness.
 

Off to School
One day Pinocchio said, “I want to go to school, like other boys.”
“Of course,” said Geppetto. But he did not have the money to buy
schoolbooks.
Later that day, Geppetto came back home with schoolbooks. “Now you can
go to school,” he said.
“But Father, where is your warm coat?”
With a wave of his hand Geppetto said, “No need to worry about that. What
matters is that you will go to school tomorrow!” He did not want Pinocchio
to know he had traded his warm coat to buy the schoolbooks.
The next morning, Pinocchio said good-bye to Geppetto.

Thanks to Ava, 13, NC

 

He skipped along the path to school, humming as he went. The Cricket rode
on his shoulder, happy, too.
Coming up to them on the path was a Fox and a Cat.
“And where are you going on this fine day?” said the Fox.
“I am going to school!” said Pinocchio.
“On such a fine day as this?” said the Fox. “It is too nice to be stuck inside
school! You should come with us, to the fair.”
“Listen to me,” said the Fox. He put his arm around Pinocchio’s shoulder.
“Anything you need to know, you can learn at the fair.”

Thanks to Ali, 11, Iran

 

“Really?” said Pinocchio.

“Take it from me,” said the Fox.
“Pinocchio!" said the Cricket.  "He does not know what he is talking about!” 
The Fox covered the Cricket with his hat. No one could hear the little fellow
as the Cricket tried to call out, “Pinocchio, do not listen to him!”
“Okay!” said Pinocchio. "Let's go to the fair!" And off they went. 
The Fair
What a fair it was! By the gate was a man dressed in white. He called out,
“Come in, come in! Right this way! Get your tickets here!”
With a sad look Pinocchio said to the Fox and Cat, “I do not have any
tickets.”
A man was selling old things at a table near the gate. He called, “Hey, you!
Sell me those new schoolbooks of yours! That is how you can get money for
tickets.”
The fair was so bright and colorful and exciting, that the next thing Pinocchio
knew he had sold his schoolbooks for tickets.
“No, Pinocchio, stop!” called the Cricket, who finally got out from under the
Fox’s hat. But Pinocchio, the Fox and the Cat did not hear him. They were
already inside the fair.
The Man Who Ran the Fair
On stage was a puppet show! “I am a puppet, too!" said Pinocchio.  "I can
dance like that!” He jumped right onto the stage and started to dance with the
other puppets.
“Look at that new puppet!” someone called. “It has no strings!”
Thanks to Shrijan, 7, UK
 

“No strings?” said another. “Amazing!”

Everyone laughed and laughed. They threw coins on the stage.
The man who ran the fair saw coins fly onto the stage. “Well, now!” he said,
rubbing his chin. “This puppet with no strings will make me rich!”
The next thing Pinocchio knew, he was picked up and thrown in a birdcage.
In the next moment, the door was locked shut.
Thanks to Siyona, 11, UK
 

“Hey, get me out!” called Pinocchio. But the person who had thrown him in
just left the room. Only the Cricket heard Pinocchio's calls. The Cricket ran
back and forth, in and out of the birdcage, trying to find a way to free the
lock.  But he could not unlock it.
“I am stuck!” cried Pinocchio. "How did this happen to me?"
Hansel and Gretel

Thank you, Artist Nikogeyer

Once upon a time a brother and sister named Hansel and Gretel lived
in a hut in the woods with their father.  Their father was a poor
woodcutter.  His wife, their mother, had died when the two children
were very young. Their father thought he would not be lonely anymore
when he finally re-married.  But the new stepmother made life very
hard for Hansel and Gretel.  The children were not allowed to eat until
after the stepmother had taken everything she wanted off the plates. 
Most of the time, there was only a crust of bread left.  And all day long
were hard chores for them to do.
Hansel and Gretel tried to tell their father about this but he would not
hear of it.  It seemed the only one he would listen to was his wife.  And
all the stepmother talked about was how much trouble it was to have
children in the hut, and how much she wished they would go away
forever. 

Thank you to Artist, DartGarry

 

Each day there was less and less food for the boy and girl to eat.  Yet
the stepmother gave them more and more hard work to do.  One day
Gretel begged her father, “Please, Father!  All day long we work hard
and we’re hungry!”  But the stepmother slapped her face. “You
ungrateful brats!" she yelled.  "You will eat us out of house and
home!” 
That night the two children were not allowed to sleep in the hut.
Outside in the cold, they shivered and tried to keep each other warm. 
Winter was coming, and the clothes they wore were so thin it felt
almost as if they had no clothes on at all.
 
They shivered and tried to keep each other warm.
The next morning when the sun rose, Gretel turned to her little
brother. “Hansel,” she said, “we cannot stay here.  We must escape
now, today, into the woods!  Surely we will find more to eat when we
are on our own than what we get here at home.”
“Do you think?” said Hansel. "But what if we get lost?”

“We won’t!” said Gretel.  “I will take bread.  We will drop breadcrumbs
behind us.  If we have to, we can follow the crumbs back home.”
And so the two of them went off into the woods and left their hard life
behind. 
They went deeper and deeper into the woods.  Gretel was careful to
drop one crumb and then after a bit, another.

Thanks to Artist, AlyssaTallent

 
But alas!  They looked and looked for any sign of something to eat - an
apple tree, pear tree, some nuts on the ground, or even dried-up
berries.  There was nothing to eat!  They got hungrier and hungrier. At
last, poor Hansel and Gretel knew they must return to their hut or they
would surely starve. They would just need to find the breadcrumbs
and that would lead them home.   Yet when they looked for
breadcrumbs, there were none to be found - all the breadcrumbs were
gone! 
A bird whooshed up into the air and in its beak was a large crumb. 
Hansel and Gretel were struck with grief – the birds must have taken
all their breadcrumbs!  A wolf howled in the distance.  The sun was
setting.  Hansel and Gretel were lost and hungry.  Now they were
scared, too.
 
“Gretel,” whispered Hansel in fear, “what will we do?”  She did not
know what to say. All she could do was to hug her little brother. Each
minute it was getting darker and darker. Again, a wolf howled in the
distance. 
All of a sudden, Gretel saw a small light shining far away.  Could it be
someone's hut this deep in the woods?  “We must find out!” cried
Gretel.  “Maybe whoever lives there is kind and will take us in.”
The two children sped as fast as they could to the light.
 

Thanks to Artist, Seethemagic

 

When they got closer, they could not believe their eyes!  If you can
imagine – from top to bottom the hut was made all of candy!  From its
gingerbread roof, with frosting all over the walls, and with candies
tucked into the frosting, what a sight to see!
“Gretel!”  Hansel cried out.  Before Gretel could say: “I bet it will be
okay if we have just a little taste,” both of them were already biting off
small chunks and licking the sweet candy.
A sharp voice!– “WHO is nibbling on my house?” Hansel and Gretel
spun around.  An old witch!
 

Thanks to Artist, Kteacrumpet

 

Stunned, Gretel could only curtsy.  "If you please, ma’am,” she said, as
sweetly as she could. “There was so much candy on your house.  And
we are so hungry!”
“You have that right, MY house!" snapped the witch.  Her voice
dropped.  "Well then,” said the witch in a gentler tone, “come inside. 
I'll get something for you to eat.”
Hansel and Gretel looked at each other in delight.  They skipped into
the witch’s hut.
 
They skipped into the witch's hut.
A fine meal of soup and bread.  As they licked the last crust of bread
and looked around the hut, what the brother and sister saw made their
hearts turn cold.  Piles and piles of bones in the corners!  Yet the two
children were very tired, and so they slept.
The next morning when they woke, Hansel found himself locked in a
cage.  The witch roared, “That's where your brother will stay!  Every
day I will fatten him up.  Soon he will make me a fine dinner!”  She
laughed and laughed, rubbing her hands with glee.  “Till then,” she
said sharply to Gretel, “you will work for me.”
 

Thanks to Artist, beckyholly

 
Indeed, Hansel was well fed and Gretel worked hard all day doing
chores for the witch. 
Each morning the witch said to the boy, “Show me your finger.  I will
feel how plump you are getting.”  For the old witch could not see well. 
Hansel held out his finger as he was told.  The witch smiled when she
felt how plump he was getting.
“Gretel,” Hansel whispered in fear. “What are we to do? Soon I will be
plump enough and the witch will want to eat me!”  His sister wished
she had a plan, but could not think of anything.