Tomie dePaola obituary
over 5 years in The guardian
Children’s author and illustrator whose Strega Nona books delighted generations of readers
The American illustrator and author Tomie dePaola, who has died aged 85, was best known for his book Strega Nona (1975), which tells the story of a wise old woman who can do magic, and her assistant, Big Anthony. Big Anthony secretly learns half the trick to controlling Strega Nona’s magic pasta pot, but then everything goes wrong. DePaola wrote 10 further picture books about Strega Nona and Big Anthony, including some in which Big Anthony has the starring role. The books and the characters have remained hugely popular in any number of formats.
While the Strega Nona books were DePaola’s best loved titles, his massive output included books of all kinds: picture books such as Oliver Button is a Sissy (1979); folk tales such as The Legend of the Bluebonnet (1983), from Texas; Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato (1992), from Ireland; and biblical stories including Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland (1992) and Tomie dePaola’s Book of Bible Stories (1990). Continue reading...