First published in novel form in 1883, after being serialized in the previous two years, this "book for children" is VERY different from the Disney version with which I am sure most of you are familiar. Written, as noted, "for children" it reads almost as if written BY children.

There is only the whisper of any sort of plot thread, and events and characters come and go (sometimes dying and then reappearing) without any logic beyond what seems to be the author's momentary whim. Pinocchio himself, for instance, begins here as a talking log, with no apparent magic involved in him being in this condition. He KILLS the Talking Cricket (who is not given a name) when the bug tries to lecture him. The Cricket subsequently returns a few times as a ghost.

Pinocchio runs away, meeting along the way many different characters who somehow know his name without being told what it is, and eventually encounters an azure haired little girl who at first tells him that she is dead, then saves him from death at the hands of the Fox and Cat (who are not anthropomorphized here, tho other animals are), then dies herself of a broken heart when Pinocchio seems to have run away again. (Actually, he's spent four months in prison, for the crime of being robbed!) The little girl turns up later, alive without any explanation, but transformed into a full grown woman. How THIS happens, she says, is "a secret."

Strange stuff. I'm about halfway thru at this point, and shall continue. I expected the book to be different from anything I knew of the characters. I had no idea!

Just finished Red Rising, a far future story about a slave born on Mars who has a shot at overthrowing a despotic ruling class. Liked it a lot. Am now reading a few...

Code Zero by Jonathan Maberry, a sequel to his terrific Patient Zero (germ warfare/terrorism where the victims become zombies)

Property of a Lady Faire by Simon R. Green (part of his Secret Histories espionage/thriller/fantasy mashup series) and

Walking Dead: Fall of the Governor Part 2.