Childrens Book Review of Strega Nona's Magic Lessons by Tomie dePaola, Number Three in the Series

Every morning Bambolona brings bread to Strega Nona. She does her job as baker’s assistant well. So her customer base expands … as do her work hours. Bambolona therefore expects the baker to help out or hire assistants. But her father follows another tack in coping with the increased business. He gives his daughter earlier start- and later end-times. He has no intention of:

• Diminishing time spent with his friends;
• Diverting resources to non-family new hires.

Impressed with the big young girl’s dedication, Strega Nona hires Bambolona for a magic spells-learning apprenticeship. Bambolona’s father then hires Big Anthony as baker’s assistant. But Big Anthony is caught sleeping while rising dough invades the room. He loses his job.

Big Anthony can be fixated when not working and inattentive on the job. He decides that he will not take Strega Nona’s decision to train nobody but Bambolona. He disguises himself as Big Antonia. But he does not distinguish himself. Bambolona alone gets to access Strega Nona’s book of hard spells. Big Anthony gets inside the house after hours and reads the book without Strega Nona’s consent or knowledge. At the next day’s lesson, he intends to impress Bambolona and Strega Nona with his magical prowess. His magic act nevertheless is ineffective on the kitchen kettle. It instead leaves Strega Nona a frog … until Big Antonia confesses to being Big Anthony and Calabria’s Grandma Witch reappears.

Tomie dePaola holds a hallowed position in the profession of creating and illustrating children’s books. He is the recipient of such impressive awards as:

• The Caldecott Honor Book, Newbery Honor Book, and 2011 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from The American Library Association;
• The Governor’s Arts Award of Living Treasure from New Hampshire;
• The Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota;
• The Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association;
• The Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

The education-related section of his résumé additionally lists honorary doctorates from:

• Georgetown University;
• Pratt Institute;
• University of Connecticut.

Natural and nurtured talents merge to produce Harcourt Brace and Company’s 1982-released Strega Nona’s Magic Lessons for:

• Ages 4 – 8+;
• Grades preschool through 3^rd+-grade.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

In "Strega Nona's Magic Lessons," bakeries and magic may or may not be interchangeable.
Calabria's celebrated cuisine includes such tantalizing baked goods as pitta 'mpigliata ("tangled pitta"), an orange-based sweet also redolent of cloves.
Pitta 'mpigliata's various shapes include collura ("donut"), rosellina ("rosette") and elongated nougat (lower right).: Fabrizio Caputo, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitta_'mpigliata.jpg

Hapless Big Anthony falls asleep on his job as a baker's assistant and awakens to the frightening encroachment of endlessly rising dough.
texture of risen dough: Jim Champion (treehouse1977), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/treehouse1977/4714683093/

In "Strega Nona's Magic Lessons," Big Anthony snoops into Strega Nona's Book of Spells but discovers that there is more to spell casting than just reading and repeating.
The Book of Spells: Spider.Dog, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/88728149@N00/2814632711

Author-illustrator Tomie dePaola sites his Strega Nona series amid the rugged beauty of Calabria's mountain and maritime landscapes in the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula.
Calabrian panorama of mountainous landscapes, stone fence decorated with horse head sculpture, and sea in the background: freshcreator (freshcreator: site builder and booking engine), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/freshcreator/4543122242/

"About Tomie." Tomie.com. Retrieved December 29, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.tomie.com/about_tomie/index.html

dePaola, Tomie. 1982. Strega Nona's Magic Lessons. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace and Company.