Tomie dePaola, who passed away earlier this year, was one of my favorite author-illustrators. I loved how his sweet, seemingly simple stories were steeped in cleverness and culture. As a Catholic, I especially appreciated how he infused his Catholic upbringing into his work. I was naturally saddened to hear of his death, but it made me all the more determined that my children should be familiar with his stories. In the past few months, they’ve enjoyed a surplus of dePaola books from the library: The Art Lesson, Pancakes for Breakfast, and Quiet . . . but most especially Strega Nona.
One of dePaola’s most popular books, Strega Nonna is the story of a “grandmother witch” with a magical pasta pot. She hires an assistant, Big Anthony, to help out around the house. He sees Strega Nona perform part of a spell to make her pasta pot cook endless pasta, but he runs into trouble showing it off to the villagers (despite her warnings) because he never saw her perform the part of the spell that makes it STOP.
As with many of dePaola’s stories, the magic is in the details: the historically accurate clothing, the peacock perched on Strega Nona’s roof that soundlessly flies off (possibly to warn her) when the trouble starts, and the priest and nuns praying for deliverance from the deluge of endless pasta threatening to overtake their village. Quiet depth pervades the story, rewarding us for stopping to look and listen rather than just grab what we need from the plot and move on.
