I have a new friend in the house. I picked up this handsome little puppet of Pinocchio in Venice during our summer trip to the Mediterranean. He now sits on my “brag shelf,” standing guard over all the books and magazines where my work has appeared. It was a pretty big memento to stuff into my suitcase, but I couldn’t pass it up, seeing how my book, Wooden Bones, was coming out at almost the same time I was visiting Italy. You see Pinocchio puppets all over Italy, of course, but most of them have the traditional red outfit, and this one better matched the spirit of my book. The company who produced it is based in Italy, and there was only one store in all of Venice where they were sold.