Strega Nona

Title: Strega Nona

Author: Tomie dePaola

Genre: Picture Book

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Copyright Date: 1979

Pages in Book: 32 pages

Reading Level: infants- 5 year

Summary: Strega Nona is a story about an elderly woman who hires a young boy named Anthony, to help her with the chores. One day, Anthony sees Strega Nona cooking in a pot that wind up being magic and makes endless amounts of pasta. He remembers the spell that she uses, but unfortunately he doesn’t see her blow three kisses to stop the pot from producing more pasta. Strega Nona goes to visit a friend, and before she leaves she tells Anthony to stay away from the pasta pot. He ignores her advice, and invites the entire town over for some pasta. The towns’ people begin to get full, so Anthony stops feeding them, and that’s when disaster strikes. The pot keeps making pasta. More and more keep coming out, and soon the town begins to fill with pasta. Strega Nona comes home in the nick of time, and blows three kisses. She tells Anthony that he needs to start eating, because she wants to sleep in her bed. So he begins eating and eating.

Reaction: I thought this was a cute book. It actually made me laugh a bit, and I thought that it was funny how cocky Anthony was during the middle of the book. I feel that this book just goes show you that you shouldn’t do things that you don’t know the response or reaction to it.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this book to children of all ages. Even I thought that it was a cute book, and I’m 22. I especially think children who want to be cooks would really enjoy this book.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: I didn’t have any problems with this story. I thought it was a good story, and one that I would feel comfortable with my children reading and/or checking out from the library.