THE ADVENTURES OF CIPOLLINO

Common types of garden produce repeatedly thwart their upper-class fruit and veggie overlords in this droll translated classic, originally published in Italy in 1951 and selected by Hayao Miyazaki as one of his 50 favorite children’s books.

Hans Christian Andersen Award–winner Rodari’s Pinocchio-style picaresque features an intrepid young onion who’s bent on obeying his father’s instructions to go out into the world and study the ways of scoundrels. Repeatedly imprisoned (“But what else can you expect,” remarks the puckish narrator; “When you’re born an onion, you’re bound to come to tears”), Cipollino nonetheless makes fools of choleric nemesis Cavalier Tomato, insatiable gourmand Baron Sweet-Orange, and other aristocrats with help from sympathetic housemaid Strawberryette and other humble allies. Tolstikova’s watercolor-style illustrations, which are new for this first English edition, brighten nearly every spread with scenes of anthropomorphic figures topped by fruit or vegetable heads and joined by the occasional animatedly talking spider, mole, or other animal. Soldierly Ponderosa lemons march back and forth, and in one chapter the despicable Prince Lemon cruelly mistreats some cucumber horses, but in general the episodic tale has more satire than violence. In the end, a Republic is proclaimed, the prince winds up with his head in a dung pile, and a castle is turned into a playhouse. Just deserts all round.

Sly, silly fun with political and class-war overtones.