We label these works children’s classics, but really they’re a literary wake-up call, as books like Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio” and E.B. Roberto Piumini, a legendary Italian author of children’s stories, wrote such a book in 1987. Considered his masterpiece, GLOWRUSHES (NYRB Kids, 128 pp., paperback, $13.99, ages 9 to 12) is now out in a graceful English translation by Leah Janeczko that captures the sprezzatura and spare elegance of the original. Ostensibly, Sakumat’s assignment is to decorate the interior realm that Madurer can never leave. In truth, his colors and lines must provide the windows to an outside world that Madurer’s medical destiny cruelly denies him.

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Persons: Roberto Piumini, Leah Janeczko, Carlo Collodi’s “, Pinocchio ”, Lord Ganuan, Madurer, Sakumat, Ganuan Locations: Italian, Turkish, Malatya