Wooden Bones (review)
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In this sequel to Collodi's Pinocchio, young Pino (Pinocchio) and his father, the woodcarver Geppetto, try vainly to keep a low profile after Pino's amazing transformation from a wooden puppet into a flesh-and-blood boy. Desperate people soon start showing up at their door, however, begging Geppetto to create and then "bring to life" wooden versions of their departed family members, as they believe Geppetto did with Pino. When Pino himself tries to recreate Geppetto's dead wife, Antoinette, the result is deeply disturbing: though Pino actually can animate his wooden figures, they are only alive in the sense that the wooden creations are able to move independently, and the mute but mobile "Antoinette" thoroughly alarms the village. From that moment on, Geppetto and Pino are on the run from people who are both frightened of and hungry for Pino's "life"-giving powers, and Pino and his father must face wolves, a strange race of tree-dwelling people, and folks who turn on the pair when Pino refuses to use his abilities to serve them. Carter's plotting is taut and quick-paced, and his characters and the situations they face (the tree-dwellers are particularly intriguing) are fresh and original. He especially excels at building and maintaining a slightly ominous atmosphere: "The puppet's mouth moved up and down, creaking as it swiveled on its hinges, but no other sound came out. Outside thunder boomed repeatedly across the valley, sounding to Pino much like a mallet pounding on a hollow log." However, the ending, in which Pino and Geppetto escape onto a ship, feels somewhat rushed and unsatisfying, and a key concluding development—Pino (who was, intriguingly, slowly returning to his wooden form as he exercised his magical power) suddenly and completely becomes human again after a last-ditch animation of an army of wooden creatures—is random and inexplicable. Still, this is a compelling and unusual read, and even the kids who don't normally touch reworkings of classic stories may find Pino's creepy-edged story fascinating.
