We did an author study on Tomie dePaola in second grade I remember reading this story. Everyone absolutely loved it. We would read it during silent reading time and any other chance we got. Our teacher ended up checking about a whole collection of the Strega Nona series. I like even though she is a "witch" that she doesn't have a negative place in the community in the book, she helps people and is kind to them rather then hinder or hurt them. This book is a Caldecott winner and that is no surprise to me. I think it is written really well. It has good morals and lessons in it, the characters all have very distinct characteristics and personalities and it was really easy to follow. I think the illustrations reflect the story well. I think it is easy for kids that don't know how to read the words to tell the story through the pictures and the pictures are drawn to reflect a long time ago (as when the story takes place), the colors are a little faded and the people's outfits are much different then we wear today, dresses and cloaks and big, fancy hats. I also really liked that it took place in another country and it was easy to identify that it was in another place. When he writes books to take place in another country or time period, he does a lot of research before he writes and illustrates the story. Although there wasn't a lot of huge Italian clues, there were many in the illustrations that could be noticed easily. While reading through the book and looking at the pictures, there wasn't a lot of diversity, everyone was white and looked the same, which is definitely not accurate in any part of the world, so I think that is one thing that could be edited, but back in 1975, I guess some of those things weren't as big of an issue as they are now.
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