★ 10/26/2020
“Every evening—no matter where he was—at nine o’clock on the dot, Signor Bianchi put in a phone call to Varese and told his little girl a story.” In the 70 brief stories told within this frame, the irrepressible Rodari plays with words, numbers (“eleventy thousand sporty-seven hundred and thirty-three”), time, and space. In bold shapes and bright colors, Vidali (The Forest) plays right along: his images read as an homage to Bruno Munari, who illustrated the first Italian edition in 1962. At times whimsical, absurd, and subversive, the stories carry readers along roads made of chocolate, under skies that rain Jordan almonds, and into children’s private language. They also speak to today’s urgent concerns—human connection, the injustice of inequality, and the dangers of authoritarianism. At every turn, Rodari remains emphatically on the side of the young, reminding readers that “the whole world already belongs to every child that comes into it.... They need only to roll up their sleeves, stretch out their hands, and take it for themselves.” Numerous gatefold spreads and tipped-in pages add to the rich texture of this beautifully produced volume. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)
"The book itself is a thing of beauty, with tantalizing, full-colour illustrations by Valerio Vidali over double-page, fold-out spreads. Antony Shugaar devises parallels to Rodari’s exuberantly inventive language and finds an equivalent to the rhythms of his prose. For readers of all ages, this book is like education on planet Blih, where, we are told, “knowledge is sold in bottles, in drinkable form. History is a red liquid that resembles Grenadine, geography is a minty green drink”, and the sheer delight of storytelling flows in abundance." -TLS
"In bold shapes and bright colors, Vidali (The Forest) plays right along: his images read as an homage to Bruno Munari, who illustrated the first Italian edition in 1962...At every turn, Rodari remains emphatically on the side of the young, reminding readers that “the whole world already belongs to every child that comes into it.... They need only to roll up their sleeves, stretch out their hands, and take it for themselves.” Numerous gatefold spreads and tipped-in pages add to the rich texture of this beautifully produced volume." -STARRED REVIEW, Publishers' Weekly
"67 whimsically surreal tales, most as short as the time one coin allotted — first published together in Italian in 1962 and finally all brought together again in a new English translation — make up this treasure trove of a book...Valerio Vidali’s new illustrations, inspired by the act of doodling on a message pad, match Rodari’s radical playfulness. Vibrant and fanciful, they run the gamut from small inserted flaps of paper to brightly colored foldout drawings. Rodari’s upside-down fairy-tale world, in which the table of contents is at the back, features, among other delights, a stoplight that turns blue; a city bus full of passengers that on a lark heads off its route into a meadow; a country that boasts pencil unsharpeners, clothes unhangers and military uncannons (“good for unwaging war”); and an entirely edible planet that offers this for breakfast: “The alarm clock goes off, you wake up, you grab the alarm clock, and you gobble it down in two bites.” -The New York Times
"Offbeat tales for readers in the mood for something whimsically contemplative." -Kirkus
"In honor of the centenary, this year, of Rodari’s birth, a small, enterprising publisher in Brooklyn, Enchanted Lion, has brought out the first full English-language edition of “Telephone Tales,” in a spirited translation by Antony Shugaar. Now, albeit decades late, Anglophone readers can find out why Italians love this writer.It would be hard for anyone, of any age, not to love the illustrations—mostly in Magic Marker—that Enchanted Lion commissioned for “Telephone Tales,” from the Italian artist Valerio Vidali. The book design itself harbors surprises. Some pages have extra little inner pages glued to them. Others are gatefold pages, where you pull the inner edge and another page folds out. In the drawings, you are shown entire worlds of semi-abstract figures: giant noses, a palace made of ice cream, birds eating cookies, plus, of course, kings and queens and a princess in a tower. The pages are sewn with stitches worthy of a Balenciaga gown. It is astonishing that the book costs only $27.95. Go buy one, right now." -The New Yorker
“The stories range in tone from the fanciful to the absurd to the philosophical. What they have in common is brevity—Bianchi ‘couldn’t afford to make extended long-distance phone calls’—and a subversive quality that would seem to reflect the author’s communist leanings ... All sorts of imaginative leaps take place in this handsome book” —Wall Street Journal
"There are a lot of stories to love in this Italian export. Rodari is a master storyteller; his imagination knows no bounds from runaway noses, buildings made of ice cream, magical carousels, and an elevator to the stars. Each story is thoughtful and well constructed as Rodari plays delightfully with different themes." —School Library Journal
"Gianni Rodari is considered the most innovative Italian children's writer of the 20th century. His countless stories and rhymes tend to end well, but in the teeth of evidence. Telephone Tales offers 68 of them ably translated by Antony Shugaar with illustrations by Valerio Vidali... For Rodari, the children's story is always an act of generosity which favors a process of initiation and liberation." —The London Review of Books
09/01/2020
Gr 3–5—Accountant Mr. Bianchi promises his daughter that he will tell her a bedtime story every night. While he is traveling across Italy, he calls her at 9 p.m. on the nearest pay phone and tells her a short story. So begins a plethora of clever tales. There are a lot of stories to love in this Italian export. Rodari is a master storyteller; his imagination knows no bounds from runaway noses, buildings made of ice cream, magical carousels, and an elevator to the stars. Each story is thoughtful and well constructed as Rodari plays delightfully with different themes. In "The Country with the Un in the Front," war is "immediately unwaged." "The Young Crayfish" emphasizes being yourself, as the crayfish learns to walk forwards despite his family's judgment, and readers learn the strength of truth against injustice in "Giacomo of Crystal." The narration is distinctly Italian from the names of all the cities, characters, food, and expressions. Although there are some female characters, a majority of the entries center male characters, and strong female leadership is only really shown in "The Well at Cascina Piana," where women from 11 warring families band together to help a male character and as a result, save their families. Almost every human is depicted in the accompanying illustrations as having a pink hue to their skin. VERDICT Though not perfect, this could be used for storytelling and bedtime reading. For larger collections.—Rebecca Fitzgerald, Harrison P.L., NY
2020-07-14
An Italian traveling salesman has promised his daughter regular bedtime stories, so he calls her nightly from a pay phone. To save money, he must keep his stories short.
Whimsical in tone, many of these 67 short stories involve language play, such as tales about inventing numbers (“a tricyclon of squintillions”) and a boy who asks impossible questions (“Why do whiskers have cats?”). Some stories are philosophical in nature, questioning war (in one story, a “festive concert of bells” rings from a cannon) and power (a child who is literally transparent alters everyone’s views of a tyrant). A string of closing stories centers on other planets, including one about a chick from Eighth Mars who tells everyone that “the word ‘enemy’ is nonexistent outside of Earth.” Each story is accompanied by an illustration, many inventive and done in highly saturated colors; most humans are depicted with magenta skin. Many stories include gatefold illustrations; others are illustrations on inset small pages, attached to the recto of a spread. Virtually all playfully ask readers to stop and think. Originally written 40 years ago by an Italian author, the stories hold up, though during a time in the United States in which monkey imagery is being reconsidered in children’s books, readers may bristle at a story about dimwitted anthropomorphic monkeys walking in circles in a cage at the zoo.
Offbeat tales for readers in the mood for something whimsically contemplative. (Picture book/short stories. 7-12)