Pinocchio — Carlo Collodi

📖 Delivered as a downloadable ePub file. Illustrated edition — featuring Alice Carsey's illustrations from the 1916 English edition. Description: The wooden puppet Pinocchio dreams of becoming a real boy, learning hard lessons about honesty and courage along the way. This English translation of Collodi's 1883 Italian original remains a cornerstone of children's literature.

Excerpt

Centuries ago there lived—

"A king!" my little readers will say immediately.

No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not an expensive piece of wood. Far from it. Just a common block of firewood, one of those thick, solid logs that are put on the fire in winter to make cold rooms cozy and warm.

I do not know how this really happened, yet the fact remains that one fine day this piece of wood found itself in the shop of an old carpenter. His real name was Mastro Antonio, but everyone called him Mastro Cherry, for the tip of his nose was so round and red and shiny that it looked like a ripe cherry.