In 2010 Disney’s Pinocchio will turn 70, meaning he became a real boy, grew up and is now probably a cardigan wearing grandpa.

Michael Rosen’s version of the little wooden puppet is still very much a boy however and you can see him at the Polka Theatre until February 7.

The Children’s Laureate tackled the children’s classic, originally by Carlo Collodi in 2001; “I devised Pinocchio originally for the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre. Polka heard about it and decided to stage it so we adapted the script.”

Rosen is a Patron and performer at the much loved children’s theatre which has been staging productions for tomorrow’s theatregoers for the past 30 years.

Pinocchio is a fairy story with a conscience as Rosen explains; “Disney had an agenda, he came from a spilt family himself. Nearly all his films are about broken families and kids who are trying to meet up with their parents.”

“Disney was also very good at making evil powerful and interesting. Making Satan tempting and exciting is contradictory!”

As weary parents the world over know, children will always choose sweets over spinach; “Pinocchio is a naughty little boy tempted by things he’s not meant to do. He turns on the person who created him. Young children often don’t notice the things that really matter, they are of the moment, they want the Mars bar and the new computer,” says Rosen.

How is the writer so in tune to children’s psyche? “I base a lot on my own childhood. I work with children a lot. I was stood outside earlier and there was a child looking happy and jumping up and down. So that went in my notebook - is she happy therefore jumping, or is the jumping making her happy?”

Children are a notoriously difficult to please audience and Rosen tries out his work on his own sons before unleashing on the public; “They always tell me if they think its rubbish,” he laughs.

“These days children get an enormous amount of information from television, computers, and school. But mostly its from talking to each other, we forget how much time children spend with other children, that is how ideas grow and spread.”

When he’s not creating plays for Polka, Rosen teaches an MA on Children’s Literature and has regular spots on Radio Four and the Wright Stuff; “I write a lot and perform in schools and libraries. At the moment I’m in the middle of a jazz and poetry tour. I love doing all these different things.”

Michael Rosen’s Pinocchio at Polka Children’s Theatre, 240 The Broadway. Until 7th February 2009. £6-£15. Ages 6+. Tickets 020 8543 4888 or www.polkatheatre.com.