Strega Nona: Her Story (urspr publ 1996; utgåvan 2000)

The origin story of Tomie dePaola's celebrated 'Grandmother Witch' is explored in this engaging picture-book adventure, the sixth to feature Strega Nona and her doings. Raised and educated by her Grandma Concetta, a celebrated strega (witch), Nona slowly learns all of the skills she needs to take her mentor's place. She also learns the secret ingredient to her grandmother's pasta, and to every kind of magic: love...

All fans of Strega Nona (in whose number I count myself) will enjoy learning a little bit more about how this wonderful witch came to practice magic in her small town in Calabria. Strega Nona: Her Story opens with the birth of its eponymous heroine, and closes with the arrival of her new assistant, Big Anthony, once she is an elderly strega herself. This is the point in time where the first book, Strega Nona, picks up, making this a prequel of sorts. The story itself is engaging, and the artwork (as always with dePaola) appealing. Recommended to fans of Strega Nona, and to picture-book readers looking for entertaining and heartwarming witchy fare. ( )

Grandma Concetta heals everyone with her remedies and advice, and when she retires, she leaves Nona her magic pasta pot with its secret ingredient.

The early days of Strega Nona definitely do not have the fairytale resonance of "bubble, bubble pasta pot" but for kids who love the book this makes it a larger world and lets them explore it in their brains and draw connections, so maybe it's the legendarium to Strega Nona's legend. ( )

Strega Nona's granddaughter looked up to her so much that she wanted to learn the potions that Strega Nona used and it was a very inspiring and predictable story! it would be a good one to use for 4th graders so they can predict what some of the Italian vocabulary words are throughout the book. ( )

In this book of the "Strega Nona" series, we finally learn more about how Strega Nona came to be. We are introduced to another character, Grandma Concetta, who spent most of her life teaching Strega Nona her ways. This is the most famous character of Tomie dePaola's and I loved being able to see a piece of the story from Strega Nona's point of view. ( )