Pinocchio: The Puppet Who Ran

What this book practices

A retelling in new words of the first part of Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian story: Geppetto carves Pinocchio, who runs off, ignores the Talking Cricket, sells his schoolbook and meets the puppet master. A gentle, funny version about honesty and gratitude.

Level

Chapter book: Seven short chapters, about 175 words on a page

Themes

Classic, Honesty, Family, Humor

After the story

A short activity checks understanding, then a prompt to tell a grown-up about the book.

Levels are PlayOwl's own design guidelines for each grade, not a certified reading level. In I'll Read, PlayOwl records that a child turned every page; it cannot hear whether the words were read.

Credit and rights

Retold by PlayOwl from The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (1883). Source: The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio) by Carlo Collodi (1883).

The words are new PlayOwl writing that follows a story in the public domain. PlayOwl claims no rights in the underlying story.

Adaptation

Retold for PlayOwl in 2026 from the first part of Le avventure di Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi: the carving, the runaway, the Talking Cricket, the three pears, the sold spelling book and the puppet theater. PlayOwl's telling is gentler than the original: the Cricket is not harmed, Pinocchio's feet are not burned, and the puppet master threatens to keep him as a dancer, not to burn him. The nose that grows with a lie, which comes later in Collodi's book, is brought forward into the theater scene. Public domain. The book was first published in Italy in 1883 and Carlo Collodi died in 1890, so copyright has expired in the United States (works published before 1929) and in countries where it lasts for the author's life plus 70 years (the term ended on 31 December 1960). English translations can carry their own copyright, so the wording of none is used (the text was checked against the Murray and Della Chiesa translations and reworded): only the events and characters of the story were followed. PlayOwl claims no rights in the underlying story.

Cover

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit. An original design, not based on the cover or pictures of any edition or film. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Illustrations

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit, from the picture briefs in this file (an Italian village long ago). Pinocchio, Geppetto and the other characters are PlayOwl's own designs, not based on the pictures of any edition or on any film. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Narration

Spoken by the reader's own device voice. PlayOwl ships no recording. No recorded work exists.

Text

Written for PlayOwl in 2026 as a new retelling of the first part of the story of Pinocchio. Every sentence is new PlayOwl wording, told from the events of the story. The retelling was checked against the English translations by M. A. Murray (1892) and Carol Della Chiesa and reworded so that no sentence follows either. No phrase of a translation is kept, and nothing in it comes from any film. Original wording owned by PlayOwl. The underlying story is in the public domain (see the adaptation record).