Written and Illustrated by Tomie de Paola
Aladdin Picture Books 1979
32 pages
Traditional Literature
Strega Nona is a story that is retold by Tomie de Paola. The name Strega Nona actually means "Grandma Witch" in Italian. This is what some supposed witch doctors used to be referred to years ago. This story is about her and her helper named Big Anthony. This lady hires Anthony to take care of things around her house for her and gives him food and a place to stay in return. Strega Nona has a pot that has special powers. Anthony overhears Strega Nona using this pot and tries to perform a little magic himself when the old lady leaves for a day. He makes a big mistake and pasta starts taking over the whole town. Luckily, the old lady returns just in time to save the town and makes Anthony take care of the mess by eating all of the pasta. I chose this book because the interesting title caught my attention.
The illustrations for this book is done with watercolors as the medium. The illustrations and the text are on the same page throughout the book. The text is above the pictures, and also between and below pictures. The illustrations give that feeling of that old retold story. The negative space is white which makes the pictures look bright and the illustrations especially stand out. This book received a Caldecott Medal.
This book could be used when learning during social studies time. The teacher could use this as a reference to how people used to believe that some people were witches and possessed magic powers. You could also do an activity with your class and make a chart with two separate categories: Things from the story that could not really happen/Things from the story that could happen to give your class examples of things that cannot really happen in real life. The class could also write or draw about the difference in witches back years ago and witches today.
The illustrations for this book is done with watercolors as the medium. The illustrations and the text are on the same page throughout the book. The text is above the pictures, and also between and below pictures. The illustrations give that feeling of that old retold story. The negative space is white which makes the pictures look bright and the illustrations especially stand out. This book received a Caldecott Medal.
This book could be used when learning during social studies time. The teacher could use this as a reference to how people used to believe that some people were witches and possessed magic powers. You could also do an activity with your class and make a chart with two separate categories: Things from the story that could not really happen/Things from the story that could happen to give your class examples of things that cannot really happen in real life. The class could also write or draw about the difference in witches back years ago and witches today.
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