Strega Nona's Gift by Tomie dePaola

This is a very different Christmas story because it covers all the celebrations from 6th December until 6th January in Calabria. Strega Nona makes food for all the different days - the Feast of San Nicola; the Feast of Santa Lucia; the Feast of San Silvestro and so on. She works hard and keeps Big Anthony busy so nothing can go wrong until the night she bakes special food for all the animals. She asks Big Anthony to take turnips stuffed with greens and ceci (chickpeas) for their goat but something goes badly wrong!

Blurb: In Strega Nona's village, the holiday season is a time of celebrations - and nothing says celebration like a feast! All the kitchens are bustling from the Feast of San Nicola, when the children choose the food, to the Feast of Epiphany, when someone gets to be king or queen for the day. Even the animals share in the holiday spirit, and when Big Anthony smells the delicious treats Strega Nona is cooking for them, he decides that just a taste couldn't hurt, right? Wrong! Big Anthony gets his just desserts, while Strega Nona surprises everyone with a special gift.

Here are all the Strega Nona books. I think you need to read the first one so you understand the characters especially Big Anthony.

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 Does It Again (2013)

I talked about the wonderful Tomie dePaola in a previous post. In 2023 the US Postal service will issue a stamp in his honour.

This stamp honours prolific children’s book author and illustrator Tomie dePaola (1934-2020), whose extraordinarily varied body of work encompasses folktales and legends, informational books, religious and holiday stories, and touching autobiographical tales. The stamp art features a detail from the cover of “Strega Nona” (1975), the Caldecott Honor winning first book in the series. Set in southern Italy, the gently humorous story focuses on Strega Nona, “Grandma Witch,” who uses magic to help with matters of the heart and to cure her neighbours’ ills. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp with Tomie dePaola’s original art. US Postal Service

Here are lots of other Christmas books by Tomie dePaola - it makes me want to start a collection! In 1984 he published a pop-up book which looks terrific but the second hand copies now sell for over $200! Oh and it only has 13 pages. 

This one will be reissued in 2023. 

Tomie dePaola (1934-2020)

Image Source Unilad

I was sad to read yesterday that Tomie dePaola had died.  In 1994 I bought my little Strega Nona doll because I am a huge fan of this series. She has traveled to my schools and lived in various classrooms over the years. There are more than fifteen books with the character Strega Nona.

Along with the Strega Nona books I also love Oliver Button is a Sissy.

Tomie wrote over 270 books.  You can listen to Tomie talking about his books here - The Children's Book podcast - where he discusses one of his newest titles - Quiet. Make sure you listen right to the end and around the 40 min mark you will hear Tomie talk about the state of children's book illustrations today and the way many books all look the same.  Here is a final quote from this podcast "I wish (for) children to be happy and to read a lot" - Tomie dePaola.

Here are the first two books he illustrated back in 1965.

I also found a  Brightly (Penguin Random House) interview with Tomie where he talks about his early art experiences and shares his advice to young artists. To understand more about Tomie take a look at his book Tom and his book The Art Lesson.

Here are some of my favourite books by Tomie dePaola.