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Strega Nona's ethnic alchemy: magic pasta, stregheria and that amazing disappearing "n".(Critical essay)

From: MELUS  |  Date: 6/22/2006  |  Author: Insana, Lina

Introduction

The children's book illustrator and writer Tomie dePaola had already made the grandmother figure the focus of his 1972 Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs when, in 1975, at the height of the season of American ethnic pride, he doodled the character that would become "Strega Nona," or "Grandma Witch." Based in part on his own Italian American grandmother Concetta, and spawning a total of eight books to date, the Strega Nona series of children's picture books has become a ...

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