Books and reading in Le avventure di Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and in Cuore by Edmondo De Amicis

In the XIXth Century Le avventure di Pinocchio [The adventures of Pinocchio] and Cuore [Heart] were the most famous novels in the Italian children’s literature. Written between 1881 (Storia di un burattino [History of a puppet] by Collodi was serialized in the paper “Giornale per i bambini” [“Journal for Children”] and 1883 in volume) and 1886 (Cuore by De Amicis), these novels were different in the vision of childhood and values. Edmondo De Amicis represented the importance of the school and education in the unification process to making the Italians. In the story books and reading were represented as emblems to growing up and the children respected them. On the opposite, Carlo Collodi portrayed contradictions and antinomies in the Italian scholastic system, superficial knowledge in the school books, the conflict between interest in knowledge and what a child should be. When Pinocchio was a puppet, he sold his text book, he and his friends throw school books into the sea. The scene seems to have been inserted to remember the dull and tedious nature of contemporary school. The presentation analyzes some parts of the texts, where books and reading are represented, and compares means, style and language. This comparative method highlights the power of the literature in the child education into the past and explains the development until today. Indeed, these stories introduce differences in poetic solutions and educational paradigms. During the XXth Century they open the way for two lines of development in the children’s literature: the real and introspective writing, the humorous and fantastic writing.