Brava Strega Nona

Title: Brava Strega Nona

Bibliographic information:

Author: Tomie dePaola

Illustrator: Tomie dePaola

Paper Engineer: Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart

• Age Range: 2 - 5 years
• School & Library Binding: 12 pages
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers; Pop edition (October 30, 2008)
• Language: English

Reader's Annotation:

Strega Nona teaches the recipe of a good life in this striking pop-up book.

Interest Level: Ages 2-5

Lexile level: Not Applicable

Awards, if applicable:

Not Applicable

Plot summary: What recipe do you need to cook up a good life?  What pinch of this or dash of that is important?  Strega Nona knows the answer to that question, and she teaches young readers the formula in this striking pop-up book.  Just start with Famiglia (family) and add Mangia (eating) and a few other special ingredients.

Critical review: This book is  a marvel of paper-engineering.  The images are large, full color, and often in motion.  Particularly impressive are scenes from some of dePaola’s best loved books - including the village that Strega Nona calls home, and Strega Nona’s table.  These exploding images are magical.  Also worthy of note are the many small mini-books on each page, with three to five small moving images.

Why include it?

Pop-up books are magical.  When you open one up and everything moves and falls into place - wait, and you’ll hear gasps of amazement - and not always just from the children in the room.  This is one of the finest examples of paper engineering, with some moving illustrations that are two times the size of the page they emerge from.