Strega Nona is a story about a woman and her helper who wants to prove to the townspeople his knowledge of the secret recipe. Students can create a story map for this book that includes the setting, characters, problem, and solution. This book is a level 730L on the lexile leveling system.

The book, Strega Nona is very interesting. Strega Nona lives in a small home near the town, and she does a lot of work for people of the town. Eventually she feels to old to take care of everything, and so she hired help. Big Anthony came and he stole him what he needs to do and in return he will get 3 coins and a place to stay and food to eat. After a while, Strega Nona only had one rule for Anthony, and that was to not touch her pasta pot. One evening, Anthony over heard Strega Nona singing to the pasta pot, and the pot ended up being magic and pasta appears in it when it is sung to. Strega Nona let one at to visit her friends, and she told big Anthony to not touch the pot again. After she left, big Anthony sang to the pot and made pasta for the whole town and when he sang the song again to ate the pasta stop growing he forgot the 3 kisses at the end of the song. The pasta kept growing until the pasta almost took over the whole town. Strega Nona came back from her trip and she knew what big Anthony had done, she sand the song and made the pasta stop growing. In the very end, she made big Anthony eat all of the pasta she can sleep in her bed tonight and so he did. This book is useful in the classroom, because this teaches students to not touch anything without asking and kept their hands to themselves. Also mind instructions when given. This book is towards kindergarten-2nd grade!

4th Grade

Caldecott Honor

Strega Nona means "Grandma witch" in Italian. In this story Strega Nona is known throughout her town for her potions and cures. She can cure almost everything but one secret she keeps is of her special spaghetti pot. Soon she has a boy named Big Anthony come work for her. He finds out the secret about the pot and the first chance he gets he uses to make spaghetti. The town is getting covered by spaghetti because Big Anthony cannot remember the spell to turn off the pot. This is a fun story to use in a small group lesson. It incorporates humor to teach students about responsibility and respecting the rules that are given. 

When my brother was young,  he couldn't say spaghetti.  This meant that whenever my parents read him a book they had to change spaghetti to Getti-Getti or else he would have a meltdown.  He loved two books as a kid - one was Strega Nona, but the one he really loved was More Spaghetti I say.  

I hate that book.  It is burned into my brain.  

I really hate it.

Honesty, if you want to ban a book about pasta it should be that one.  Stupid monkeys.

But since Strega Nona is about witch, it gets picked one.

Always out to get us Italians - cooks, mob, witches.

Genre: Humor / Competition / Italy / Folktale

Year Published: 1993

Year Read: 1996

Series: Strega Nona #5

Strega Nona is back again and this time she faces her biggest challenge yet… Strega Amelia! Tomie dePaola did an excellent job on both the illustrations and the story and therefore, makes “Strega Nona meets her match” an instant treat.

Tomie dePaola’s storytelling is clever and funny as he details Strega Nona’s efforts to get her job back from Strega Amelia. Also, the storytelling gets extremely hilarious when Big Anthony tried to do everything right for Strega Amelia, but ends up running all the machines backwards and ruining Strega Amelia’s chance for a profitable business. Tomie dePaola’s illustrations are also the highlights of the book as he comically illustrates the Mayor’s predicament when Big Anthony tried to cure his headache, but ended up making the machine malfunction.

“Strega Nona meets her match” is a wonderful story about peer pressure as Strega Amelia tries to get the townspeople to use high-tech products for fixing their problems over Strega Nona’s old-fashioned remedies. However, when things go wrong at Strega Amelia’s clinic, the townspeople realize that sometimes it is better to just stick with the old and simple techniques than try out new techniques that they have no control over. “Strega Nona meets her match” is a wonderful classic that both children and adults will cherish for many years because of its clever humor and its even more clever storytelling.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog