Pinocchio

What, you ask, does Pinocchio have to do with the gospel? Lots.

If you've never read the book by Carlo Collodi, the first thing you must know is that it is different than the Disney movie. For one, Jiminy Cricket shows up in chapter four, and two pages later is smashed by a hammer (thrown by Pinocchio). The cricket does show up a few other times throughout the book (as a ghost), and is one of the voices of warning.

The Blue Fairy is different in the book too. We first meet her as a child with blue hair. Later she is a woman with blue hair, and occasionally she is a goat or other creature with blue hair. She acts as "momma" to Pinocchio, and shows up much more frequently than the cricket (who has no name).

Geppetto is Pinocchio's father and loves him dearly. He is also dirt poor, and sells the coat off his back in order to buy a spelling book for Pinocchio.

One night, towards the beginning of the book, Pinocchio was getting himself into a scrape (it was not the first time either, because he was not a very well-behaved puppet), but just at the moment when all hope would be lost, he calls out for his father.

"Humph!" I thought. "That is so presumptuous of him, to go against all his father's counsel and then call out to his father in his hour of need."

Then I said, "Oh." I do that too.

The book is a wonderful allegory for the plan of salvation, and our time on earth. Pinocchio's goal is to become a "real boy," a human like his father. He messes up a lot, sometimes because he's innocent, sometimes not, and he struggles and repents and makes up for it, and ultimately he is rewarded by becoming a real boy.

I'd go into more detail, but I think you get the idea. You should read the book. I loved it.