Стрега Нона и волшебный горшок с пастой

Book by Tomie dePaola

Strega Nona is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. If considered as a folktale, the story is Aarne Thompson type 565, the Magic Mill. It concerns Strega Nona (resembling what would be "Grandma Witch" in Italian, although this would actually be "Nonna Strega", with the two words inverted and the first one spelled with a double n) and her helper, Big Anthony. With only a single "n" (i. e., Nona), the title actually means "Ninth Witch" in Italian. Big Anthony causes the title character's magic pasta pot to create so much pasta that it nearly floods and buries a town led Big Anthony in trouble with Strega Nona due for his foolish observes. The book, which is likely dePaola's best known work, was published in 1975 and won a Caldecott Honor in 1976. It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. Strega Nona has been challenged or banned in some children's libraries in the United States because it depicts magic and witchcraft in a positive light.

Set in Calabria, in southern Italy, the book focuses on the exploits of Strega Nona. She is a sort of wise Woman and witch doctor noted throughout her home village for her numerous successful remedies. She helps her fellow villagers with their troubles, most notably by curing headaches, helping single women find husbands, and ridding people of warts. Because she is getting old, Strega Nona employs the assistance of a young man named Big Anthony to do the household chores. Knowing that he pays little attention, Strega Nona informs Big Anthony of his duties carefully and clearly, adding only one restriction never to touch her magic pasta pot. Big Anthony complies, but one night he secretly observes Strega Nona singing a spell to the magic pasta pot to produce large amounts of cooked spaghetti noodles; the man is impressed, but unfortunately, he fails to notice that she blows kisses to the pot three times to stop the pasta production. Big Anthony tries to share his discovery with the townsfolk the next day, but he is laughed at and disbelieved. He vows to one day impress them by making the pasta pot cook by himself. He gets his chance two days later when Strega Nona leaves to visit her friend Strega Amelia and leaves the house in his care. The moment she is gone, Big Anthony gets out the pasta pot and successfully conjures up large amounts of pasta, which he then serves to the townsfolk. However, since Big Anthony cannot stop the pot from cooking, the spaghetti gradually cover Strega Nona's house and nearly floods the entire town. Disaster is averted when Strega Nona returns and immediately blows the three kisses to stop the pot's cooking. The townsfolk want to lynch Big Anthony, but Strega Nona intervenes, on the grounds that the punishment must fit the crime, and hands a fork to Big Anthony and commands him to eat all of the pasta he has conjured. By nightfall, he is stuffed.

Although the cover and title page of early printings of the book stated that Strega Nona is "an old tale retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola", in truth dePaola invented the character and the story himself. He wrote the words "Strega Nona" next to a doodle of a woman's head he drew in the early 1970s and later made her the main character in his story based on the Sweet Porridge fairy tale. Later printings of the book bear the accurate subtitle "an original tale written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola". In the Italian language, the word "strega" means "witch" and the word "nonna" means "grandmother", misspelled as "nona" in the book title. Hence "Strega Nona" means "Grandma Witch". Thomas Olson and Roberta Carlson adapted Strega Nona, Big Anthony and the Magic Ring, and Strega Nona Her Story as Strega Nona The Musical for the 1986–1987 season of the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. The musical, which went on tour, was also known as "Tomie dePaola’s Strega Nona." Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Strega Nona was adapted into an audiobook narrated by Dom DeLuise. Strega Nona, Big Anthony, and Bambolona appeared as supporting characters in the 2001 television series Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola with Strega Nona performed by Bill Barretta and Bambolona performed by Julianne Buescher. In 2023, the United States Postal Service issued a U. S. postage stamp featuring Strega Nona.