Beginning the Strega Nona Blitz

I'm on a bit of a Tomie dePaola binge since reading Tomie dePaola: His Art and His Stories. Though I love his autobiographical stories, my introduction to dePaola's work came when I was teaching 1st grade many moons ago and came be way of the delightful tale of Strega Nona.

He has written quite a few books about Strega Nona and her friends:

• Strega Nona: An Original Tale, 1975 (Caldecott Honor Book)
• Big Anthony and the Magic Ring, 1979
• Strega Nona's Magic Lessons, 1982
• Merry Christmas, Strega Nona, 1986
• Strega Nona Meets Her Match, 1993
• Strega Nona, Her Story, 1996
• Big Anthony, His Story, 1998
• Strega Nona Takes a Vacation, 2000
• Brava, Strega Nona: A Heartwarming Pop-Up Book, 2008
• Strega Nona's Harvest, 2009
• Strega Nona's Gift, 2011
• Strega Nona Does It Again, 2013
• The Magical World of Strega Nona: A Treasury, 2015 includes:

• Strega Nona
• Strega Nona Meets Her Match
• Strega Nona, Her Story
• Strega Nona Takes a Vacation
• Strega Nona's Harvest
• Strega Nona's Gift
• New Introductions to Each Story
• Map of Strega Nona's Town
• Family-Friendly Recipes
• An Original Lullaby with Sheet Music
• A CD of the Lullaby, and Tomie Reading Strega Nona, Her Story

• Strega Nona and Her Tomatoes, 2017
• Strega Nona and the Twins, 2017
• Strega Nona: A Classic Board Book, 2017
• Strega Nona's Magic Lessons (new publisher, new design) (December 5, 2017)
• Strega Nona's Magic Ring (formerly Big Anthony and the Magic Ring) (new publisher, new design) (March 27, 2018)

This list would be a great starting place for an author study on dePaola and/or a comprehensive list for a Strega Nona and friends character study. Big Anthony's character can open up conversations about following directions, being honest, and work ethic. Bambolona's traits are the complete opposite, which makes a great compare/contrast lesson.

Today, I'm going to cover Strega Nona, Strega Nona's Magic Lessons, and Strega Nona's Harvest. In future posts, I'll cover several others.

Strega Nona - Strega Nona (grandma witch) is Calabria's resident healer. She is so busy that she hires Big Anthony to help her with the chores around her little house. Little does she know, Big Anthony rarely does anything right. Strega Nona prepares pasta for supper with her magic pasta pot, and Big Anthony becomes obsessed with the pot, but he is not allowed to use it. When she leaves town, Big Anthony, of course, just HAS to try the pasta pot, with disastrous results.

Storyline Online - Mary Steenburgen reads Strega Nona. She makes the pasta song come alive by singing it and accompanying herself on the accordian.

Tomie dePaola tells how this Strega Nona story came to be.

Strega Nona's Magic Lessons - Bambolona, the baker's daughter has been working for Strega Nona for quite a while and now she wants to learn magic. Strega Nona happily agrees to teach her, and Big Anthony wants in on the lessons. When Strega Nona rebuffs him, he storms off and asks the baker to let him learn HIS secrets. Being Big Anthony, he makes a mess of the bakery and gets sent away. As he mopes through the town square, telling everyone how upset he is that Strega Nona won't give him magic lessons, someone mentions that men can't be stregas. So Big Anthony disguises himself as a woman, returns to Strega Nona's home, and is able to join the magic lessons. It does NOT go well.

Strega Nona's Harvest - Strega Nona teaches Bambolona and Big Anthony how to plant a garden, but naturally Big Anthony doesn't like having to make straight furrows and plant like seeds together. He wants to do things his own way - the lazy way ;) and though he follows directions for Strega Nona's garden he decides he will plant his own garden to show her that being fussy isn't necessary. Unexpectedly, Big Anthony's garden does fairly well, but not surprisingly, it creates complications for Strega Nona. With her usual aplomb, Strega Nona solves the problem.

Check your local library for these titles. Library tip: check to see if your library is connected to any other library systems. Our community has a fairly small library, but titles can be requested from the other branches in our regional library network. 

AND...anyone with a library card from our Kitsap Regional Library system can take it to a Seattle library and get a library card to borrow materials from the Seattle network as well. Your community may have the same type of agreement with surrounding areas, so be sure to ask!

Build your Strega Nona library at home via Amazon:

• Strega Nona
• Strega Nona's Magic Lessons
• Strega Nona's Harvest

Next time: Strega Nona Does it Again and Strega Nona takes a Vacation

Jim Henson Company - Strega Nona tells Tomie dePaola a story about her birthday

• Click here to read "More Strega Nona Love" post
• Click here to read "Wrapping Up the Strega Nona Blitz" post.
• Click here to read "Merry Christmas, Strega Nona" post.

Author Kate DiCamillo

I love author events!  Tonight I got to hear Kate diCamillo speak thanks to Eagle Harbor Book Co. and Kitsap Regional Library.  

She started out by reading the first few pages of Because of Winn-Dixie, then opened the floor to questions.

Here are some of the stories she shared:

She came upon the idea for Flora & Ulysses because she had two situations nagging at her - one was her mother's vacuum.  Before her mother passed away, she was obsessed with making sure her vacuum would be taken care of and Kate promised to make sure that happened.  She ended up putting it in the garage because it made her too sad to see it all the time.  The other niggling incident was seeing a squirrel dying on her porch.  She panicked and called her best friend and asked her what to do.  "Do you have a shovel?"  Her friend said she'd be right over with a tee shirt and they would take care of the poor dying thing.  Kate says she moved away from the squirrel during the conversation, hoping it wouldn't hear the plan, but she is sure that it did because when she returned to the porch it was gone :)

One of the pieces of the Mercy Watson character fell into place when she got a brand new car, a Mini, and she was so excited.  A friend asked for a ride to the airport and got into her car with a piece of liberally-buttered toast, and as she ate and talked, greasy toast crumbs flew all over Kate's new car.  She asked her to wait till she got out of the car to finish her toast, but instead got a lecture about the wonders of toast.  After she "got rid of her," she realized that the missing piece of the pig's personality was a love of liberally-buttered toast.

A young lady asked her why she chose the color red for the sacrificial thread in The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread.  Kate said that she didn't realize the significance of red when she wrote that.  She told us about her first school visit:  the teacher told her class that they would be discussing the themes of her book with Ms. diCamillo.  She was thinking, "My book has themes? I wonder what they are?""  Luckily the teacher knew what they were and when she returned to her car, she wrote them down and on her next school visit, she walked in and said, "Ok kids, today we're going to talk about the themes of my book."  She said that often writers pull things into their writing without even realizing that they are significant.

One of my colleagues asked her to say something about the editing process.  She said, "The editing process is EVERYTHING!"  Kate edits her own work 6-7 times before sending it to her editor, who then sends her 6-7 pages of single-spaced "suggestions" for changes.  After she sulks and mutters for a while, she digs in and makes the changes and is never sorry she did.  The book always ends up being richer, better than she could have imagined.

Two comments I particularly enjoyed:  First, Kate reminded us that reading is a privilege. Then, she said she is the luckiest person in the world because she gets letters all the time from children who tell her they didn't like to read until they read her books.

Kate was wonderfully gracious, she stayed until every book was signed and every picture was taken.  We were second-to-last in line and she was just as friendly to us as she was to the first people in line.  My compliments to the event staff - they kept the line moving at a fast pace without anyone feeling short-changed.

If you haven't read one of her books yet, start with Because of Winn-Dixie.  Today.