dePaola, T. Strega nona. (1975). Simon & Schuster: New York, NY.
Genre: Folktale with elements of a magic tale because the story contains a witch who helps the people of her town with spells and potions.
Age Level: 5-8
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Strega Nona is a comical folktale that was born from the mind of Tomie DePaola. He came up with the idea of Strega Nona when he decided to retell a universal folktale called The Porridge Pot. He decided to re-tell the tale, replacing porridge with pasta and using the character Strega Nona which he had already drawn up, as his main character. The story takes place in Italy in a small town of Calabria, which is an actual town where this author’s ancestors came from. The real tale of how Strega Nona came about can be found at his website: http://www.tomie.com/books/spotlight_on_strega.html. I absolutely love this book and would love to use it in the classroom. I chose the book because of the interesting title ( which means grandma witch in Italian).
In the book, Strega Nona is a witch who helps the people of her town with problems such as finding husbands and getting rid of warts. She decides that she is getting older and needs help with her chores because she is so busy with her work, so she hires Big Anthony. Strega Nona uses her pasta pot every day and tells Big Anthony that he must never touch it. When Strega Nona goes out of town, Big Anthony decides to try out the magic pasta pot and chaos ensues. This book has elements of a magic tale because of the use of magic in the story. The author also lets the setting in Italy shine through by incorporating the language of the country: “’Oh grazie,’ said Big Anthony.” (p. 4).
Strega Nona is a Caldecott Honor book and has wonderful and colorful illustrations. dePaola was inspired by commedia dell'arte, meaning Italian Comedy, to create his illustrations. They remind me of cartoon illustrations, because the characters are exaggerated. For example, Strega Nona has an enlarged nose and chin, while other characters are rounded and have no real definition. On some of the pages, the illustrations are set up like a comic strip with a line of text under each strip that tells what is happening. The strips are divided into boxes with each box illustrating what happens first, second, etc. Not every page is like this, but it occurs often and adds interest to the book. The illustrations also show evidence of its setting because there are illustrations of the town square and of foods in the kitchen like grapes and of course pasta! The illustrations also tell us that the story takes place long ago because of the clothing that the main and flat characters are wearing, such as long tunics and pants.
There are so many things that can be done with Strega Nona in the classroom. I would incorporate social studies by doing a study on Italian culture and having students look at maps to find Italy. Many foods are also incorporated in the book and students could do a nutrition study about the different foods that are in the book.I would also try to relate the book to the students’ lives by letting them share a time they were pressured to do something, the way Big Anthony was pressured by the town people. Strega Nona uses poems and little songs for her spell on the pasta pot. Students could be encouraged to write their own spells. Students can also be asked these BIG questions after reading the book:
· Big Anthony was tempted to do something that he wasn’t supposed to do. Have you ever been in this type of situation? What happened?
· How could the story have turned out differently if Big Anthony had been able to make the pot stop cooking? Do you think he would have gotten away with it?
· Do you think Big Anthony’s punishment fit the crime? If you were Strega Nona, how would you have handled Big Anthony?
Here are some more ideas for using Strega Nona in the classroom and about commedia dell'arte:
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