Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola

Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola

Rating: 4.5 stars

We love the Strega Nona series, and I really thought I knew them well. But I had a have-I-lost-all-my-senses moment last week when I finally realized that the Strega Nona book we own is not THE Strega Nona book. We have Strega Nona, Her Story. And we've read all the others, except, I thought, one. All of the stories reference Big Anthony's grand mistake of sneaking into Strega Nona's little cottage on the hill and using her magic pasta pot after he watches her cook with it. I must find this book for Lorelei! I kept thinking. So I'd go on amazon and the library website and just plain Google and type in "Strega Nona Big Anthony pasta pot." And I got the book Strega Nona every time. No, no, no! I'd think, I HAVE that one. What's the one where Big Anthony makes all that pasta that spills into town?! Finally I went to DePaola's website and went down his list of published books slowly and carefully and then realized: we'd not read Strega Nona, THE Strega Nona! Luckily our local library owns a copy; we needn't even order it up for the following week's trip.

What a great book! So the story is pretty obvious: Strega Nona, or "Grandma Witch," has this magic pasta pot that all of us moms--working at home or somewhere else--wish we had. Big Anthony remembers the magic words to start it up, and he remembers the words that make it stop, but he neglects to blow three kisses, so the pot neglects to stop making pasta. The pasta spills into Calabria and everyone is afraid they'll drown in carbs until Strega Nona strolls in and saves the day by making it stop. The townspeople want to "string up" Big Anthony (he doesn't get 5 stars for this book because of that line...I had to explain to Lorelei what "string him up" meant...well, I sorta explained to her what it meant) but wise Strega Nona says: "No, wait. The punishment must fit the crime" and hands Big Anthony a fork.

I love it! What a great message tucked away in a wonderful story.

So, the other story from our house is this: Lorelei refuses to eat pasta. I seriously wonder if she's really my child. I mean, I LOVE pasta. I could eat it every night. But she flat refuses. So tonight I told her we were going to Calabria, Italy, for dinner and we got out our magic pasta pot (the big ole one we don't use very often) and we all said the magic words together. ben wanted to, but he just looked around, excited and confused, wondering why his family was chanting at a pot. Lorelei was SO excited! Then, five minutes later, the buzzer beeped and I drained the pasta without her looking. We said the magic words to get the pasta to stop, then blew three kisses. I peeked in the pot. Empty! It worked! She peeked in the pot! Empty! Wow! Magic! When we all sat down to eat, she insisted we all say "Mangia!" together before we ate. And then the eating began!

Or it didn't. She didn't touch the pasta. I begrudgingly gave her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so her picky little bum wouldn't be hungry when she fell asleep. Points to Ben, who managed to twirl his pasta with his clumsy 17 month-old hands AND eat my homemade meatballs. I love anyone who loves my food! And, I guess, some who don't, even when I add magic to it.