Pinocchio, Part 1: The Puppet Who Could Talk

In bold: key vocabulary. Tap any word in the text to see its definition.

Long ago, in a small Italian town, an old woodcarver called Mr. Cherry found a strange piece of wood in his workshop. When he lifted his axe to cut it, a tiny voice said, "Please, don't hit me so hard!" Mr. Cherry dropped the axe and looked around, but the room was empty. "I must be tired," he said. "Wood doesn't talk." Still, he didn't want a piece of wood with a voice in his workshop, so he gave it to his old friend Geppetto.

Geppetto was a poor man who lived alone in a tiny house. He was tired of being lonely, so he decided to carve a puppet. "It will dance, it will fight, and it will jump," he said. "People will pay to see it, and then I'll have enough money for bread and soup." He chose the name Pinocchio, which means "pine nut" in Italian, and he began to work.

He carved the head first, then the hair and the forehead. Then he carved two eyes. To his surprise, the eyes moved and looked at him! "Why are you staring at me, wooden eyes?" Geppetto asked. They didn't answer, but they kept staring.

Next, he made the mouth. Before it was finished, it started to laugh and stick out its tongue. "Stop laughing!" shouted Geppetto, but the mouth only laughed more. Then he made the hands. As soon as they were ready, they grabbed Geppetto's wig and put it on the puppet's head. "Give me my wig!" cried Geppetto. "No," said Pinocchio, and he refused to give it back. "It's mine now!"

Finally, Geppetto carved the legs and feet. He was holding the puppet up to teach him how to walk when Pinocchio kicked him in the nose. Then the puppet jumped to the floor, ran out of the door, and raced down the street. Geppetto chased him, shouting, "Stop him! Catch him!" But the people only laughed. It isn't every day that you see a wooden boy running faster than his father.

At last, a policeman caught Pinocchio by the arm. When Geppetto arrived, out of breath, he said angrily, "Wait until we get home!" But the people in the street thought Geppetto wanted to hurt the little puppet. They shouted at him, and the policeman took the poor old man to prison. Pinocchio ran home alone, laughing all the way.

That night, in the empty house, a small voice spoke from the wall. It was the Talking Cricket, who had lived there for a hundred years. "Pinocchio," he said, "listen to me. Boys who don't obey their parents are always sorry in the end." "I'm not sorry," laughed Pinocchio. "Tomorrow I'm going to run away again. Nobody's going to tell me what to do!" "You'll be very sorry," said the Cricket, "and very soon." Pinocchio picked up a wooden hammer and threw it. The hammer hit the wall, and the Cricket went silent.

Outside, the night grew dark and cold, and Pinocchio's stomach began to growl. He had no father, no supper, and nobody to tell him what to do. He was about to find out how much he needed all three.

To be continued in Part 2...