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The Adventures of Pinocchio
Scouts · 1st–3rd
Mastro Cherry hears a voice cry out from the wood, yet he keeps telling himself he only imagined it. Is that good sense, or is he too scared to believe it?
The tension Mastro Cherry trusts what he knows, that this is only common firewood, while his own ears tell him something else, and his answer to fear is to laugh, sing and strike the log.
Notice how Mastro Cherry answers a voice he cannot explain: he searches, argues with himself, and goes back to work.
Mastro Cherry, an old carpenter, finds a common block of firewood in his shop and is glad of it. When he lifts his hatchet, a tiny voice begs him to be careful. He searches the room, decides he imagined it, and strikes the wood. The voice cries out, he knocks the log about, and when it giggles under the plane he falls to the floor with his nose turned deep purple.
Start in the shop: ask what Mastro Cherry thinks the wood is for, and then what he does when it speaks.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the wood, the first voice, the search, the second voice, the knocking about, the giggle, and the fall.
Imitate the author After copying the sentence, the student writes one sentence in the same pattern: how someone felt, then what they did about it, joined by the word "so".
Debate Take sides on the big question: is Mastro Cherry sensible to say he imagined the voice, or too scared to believe it? Each side uses one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why a story might begin with a man who keeps explaining away a voice he heard.
Easier Read the shop scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 3 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student give one critical-thinking answer aloud with two things from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student what Mastro Cherry would need to see or hear before he stopped saying he imagined it.
1. Mastro Cherry looks under the bench, in the closet, and out the door, and finds no one. Is he glad or worried about that? What makes you think so?Inference
What it asks It asks how Mastro Cherry feels when his search turns up nothing, and whether an empty room calms him or makes the voice stranger.
He is glad: with no one there, he can tell himself the voice was only in his head.
he then said, laughing and scratching his Wig
It can easily be seen that I only thought I heard the tiny voice say the words!
He is worried: a voice with no one behind it is stranger than a voice with someone there.
He turned frightened eyes about the room to find out where that wee, little voice had come from and he saw no one!
He opened the door to look up and down the street--and still no one!
A strong answer Both feelings are in the chapter. He turns frightened eyes about the room, and every place he looks gives the same answer: no one. Then he laughs and says he only thought he heard it. A strong answer notices that the laughing comes right after the frightened looking, and lets the chapter show both feelings without ranking them.
2. Mastro Cherry says the log is only common firewood. Then he wonders if someone is hidden in it. Why might he say both things in one breath?Character
What it asks It asks why one speech holds two ideas that do not fit together, and what that shows about how he is thinking.
He is reasoning it out: he knows wood, so he tries a new idea when the old one fails.
a piece of common firewood, good only to burn in the stove, the same as any other
Yet--might someone be hidden in it?
He is rattled: his thoughts jump from one idea to the next because he is frightened.
trembling and stuttering from fright
I can hardly believe it.
A strong answer First he says the log is common firewood, as if that settles it. Then he asks if someone is hidden in it, an idea only a man who half believes the voice would have. A strong answer can call this careful thinking, one idea tried after another, or can call it a frightened man grabbing whatever explanation comes, since the chapter says he speaks "trembling and stuttering from fright." Either way he is holding two ideas at once.
3. After the voice cries, “Oh, oh! You hurt!” Mastro Cherry throws the log against the walls. Was that fair? What makes you think so?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks whether knocking the log about is fair when it has just cried out, and what Mastro Cherry thinks he is hitting.
It was not fair: the voice cried out in pain, and he hit the log harder.
Oh, oh! You hurt!
he grabbed the log with both hands and started to knock it about unmercifully
It was fair enough from where he stood: he thought someone might be hidden in the wood, and he meant to deal with him.
Yet--might someone be hidden in it? If so, the worse for him. I’ll fix him!
A strong answer The voice said it hurt, and he knocked the log against the walls and even up to the ceiling. That is hard to call fair. But he is not sure what is making the sound; he wonders if someone is hidden in the wood and says, "I'll fix him!" A strong answer weighs what the voice said against what he believed, and says whether believing something that might be wrong makes the hitting better or worse.
4. The author says Mastro Cherry's funny face became “still funnier,” and that he fell “as if shot.” Why might the author make a scary moment funny?Author's choice
What it asks It asks why the author makes a frightening moment funny, and what the funny pictures do for the reader.
The jokes make us like Mastro Cherry and keep the story light.
His funny face became still funnier.
his eyes popped out of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his tongue hung down on his chin
The jokes show how scared he is, because only a frightened man would fall over and turn purple.
This time poor Mastro Cherry fell as if shot.
fright had turned even the tip of his nose from red to deepest purple
A strong answer The author gives us a carpenter whose eyes pop out, whose tongue hangs on his chin, and whose nose turns purple. These pictures are funny, and they are also pictures of fright. A strong answer can say the humor makes us fond of him, or that it lets us see how scared he is, and can notice that the two work together.
5. The voice speaks three times: first it begs, then it cries, then it giggles. Which time shakes Mastro Cherry most? Why?Plot structure
What it asks It asks the student to put the three voices in order and judge which one shakes Mastro Cherry most.
The second time shakes him most: he is struck dumb, then starts beating the log.
Mastro Cherry grew dumb, his eyes popped out of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his tongue hung down on his chin.
The poor fellow was scared half to death
The third time shakes him most: it is the one that knocks him to the floor.
This time poor Mastro Cherry fell as if shot.
fright had turned even the tip of his nose from red to deepest purple
A strong answer The first time the voice begs him to be careful, and he stands still with his arm raised, then decides he imagined it. The second time it cries out "You hurt!" and he is struck dumb and starts knocking the log about. The third time it giggles under the plane and he falls to the floor. A strong answer picks one and says why: the second brings his most frightened actions, while the third is the one that finally knocks him down.
1. At first Mastro Cherry sees only a table leg in the wood. Does he still see only that by the end? Use two things from the chapter.
What it asks It asks whether the carpenter's idea of the wood has changed by the end, and what the student can point to.
It has not changed: he keeps treating it as a plain log and keeps trying to work it.
Well, well--to work once more!
He set aside the hatchet and picked up the plane to make the wood smooth and even
It has changed: he now wonders if someone is inside the wood and listens for it.
Yet--might someone be hidden in it?
He listened for the tiny voice to moan and cry.
A strong answer At first he plans to make the leg of a table, and twice he says, "Well, well--to work once more!" He even picks up the plane to smooth the wood, so part of him still sees only a table leg. But he also asks whether someone is hidden in it and listens for the tiny voice to moan and cry, which a man looking at a plain log would not do. A strong answer picks one view and backs it with two different pieces of evidence.
2. Mastro Cherry waits ten minutes, hears nothing, and says he imagined the voice. Is that a good reason? Use two things from the chapter.
What it asks It asks whether ten quiet minutes is a good reason to decide there was no voice.
It is a fair test: he listened a long time and heard nothing.
He waited two minutes--nothing; five minutes--nothing; ten minutes--nothing.
It is a weak test: he had just beaten the log, and the voice speaks again soon after.
he grabbed the log with both hands and started to knock it about unmercifully
he heard the same tiny voice
A strong answer He waits two minutes, then five, then ten, and hears nothing, so he has some reason. But the quiet comes right after he has knocked the log about, and a few moments later the same tiny voice giggles at the plane. A strong answer weighs the long quiet against that, and says whether silence is enough to prove there was nothing there.
3. The story says the wood was “not an expensive piece of wood.” Does that change how Mastro Cherry treats it? Use two things from the chapter.
What it asks It asks whether the wood's plain beginning changes how Mastro Cherry handles it.
Yes: because it is plain wood, he plans to use it and hits it hard.
I shall use it to make the leg of a table.
good only to burn in the stove, the same as any other
Not completely: once it speaks he stops, grows careful, and gets frightened, even though it is still plain wood.
he stood still with arm uplifted
The poor fellow was scared half to death
A strong answer At first he treats it like any plain log: he will make a table leg from it and calls it good only to burn. That fits how the story describes it. But the moment it speaks he stands still with his arm raised, and later he is scared half to death. A strong answer says the plain wood is how he starts, and then decides how much of his rough treatment comes from that and how much from fear.