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Telephone Tales by Gianni Rodari
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Telephone Tales (original 1962; edition 2020)

by Gianni Rodari (Author), Valerio Vidali (Illustrator), Antony Shugaar (Translator)

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4711252,080 (3.95)8
A large collection of very short nonsense stories for children. The vast majority of the tales seem to have no point other than being nonsensical. There is no character development, so you really couldn't care less what happens to anybody in the stories. To top it off, the publishers seem to have sought out the worst illustrator on earth to illuminate the book.
Whatever supposed merit this collection has, it was totally lost on me. ( )
  fingerpost | Sep 18, 2021 |
English (4)  Italian (3)  Spanish (2)  Dutch (2)  Catalan (1)  All languages (12)
Showing 4 of 4
A large collection of very short nonsense stories for children. The vast majority of the tales seem to have no point other than being nonsensical. There is no character development, so you really couldn't care less what happens to anybody in the stories. To top it off, the publishers seem to have sought out the worst illustrator on earth to illuminate the book.
Whatever supposed merit this collection has, it was totally lost on me. ( )
  fingerpost | Sep 18, 2021 |
In 1970, Italian author Gianni Rodari was awarded the Hans Christen Andersen Award for children's literature; 51 years later, he received the Batchelder Award for this cute novel. The premise is a travelling salesmen calls home every night to tell his daughter a 3-minute story from a payphone. (Note: you may need to explain what a payphone is to your kids.) There are about 70 stories contained herein, most of which have an illustration, so typically a 2-page story. Some are quite cute, others contain a pearl of wisdom, some are clunkers. Generally fun.

P.S. Weird to read two books back-to-back prominently featuring the Russian space hero, Yuri Gagarin. ( )
  skipstern | Jul 11, 2021 |
A collection of very short, very silly stories for kids, framed by the narrative that they were told by a business-traveling father over the phone to his child every night.
Meh. In the vein of Lear's Book of Nonsense; likely absolutely hilarious to little ones, but loses most of its appeal at older ages. ( )
  electrascaife | Feb 19, 2020 |
Discovered via Telling Stories Wrong, illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna.
*
"Influenced by French surrealism and linguistics," indeed! (Flap copy) This edition was designed with special care, with color illustrations, tip-ins, and gate-folds to accompany the short stories.

In "The Young Crayfish," the titular hero wonders why everyone in their family walks backward, and decides to teach himself to walk forward, refusing to "resign [himself] to doing as everyone else does." (68-69)

"Once upon a time, a sorcerer invented a machine that made comets. It slightly resembled his machine for slicing soup, but it wasn't the same. Instead, it made comets to order..." (102)

"Thanks to the invention of this sidewalk, trolley cars, electric buses, and cars have been abolished. There are still streets, but they're empty of vehicles, and children use them to play ball. If a policeman even tries to confiscate the ball, then he has to pay a fine. (from "The Conveyor Sidewalk," (184)

"A typical breakfast: The alarm clock goes off, you wake up, you grab the alarm clock, and you gobble it down in two bites." (from "Space Cooking," 186-187) ( )
  JennyArch | Feb 19, 2023 |
Showing 4 of 4

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