Tomie DePaola

Tomie de Paola's first story featuring his beloved Strega Nona character, who began life in the 1970s as a doodle, and was the perfect creation for his Italianized retelling of Der süße Brei, Grimm's Fairy Tales, number 103. Der süße Brei, or The sweet porridge, is better known in English as The magic porridge pot. When Strega Nona leaves him alone with her magic pasta pot, Big Anthony is determined to show the townspeople how it works.

A retelling of the traditional Mexican tale of how the poinsettia became the beautiful plant associated with Christmas.

Having learned to be creative in drawing pictures at home, young Tommy is dismayed when he goes to school and finds the art lesson there much more regimented.

Big Anthony, well-meaning but inattentive, journeys around Italy causing one problem after another, before meeting Strega Nona.

Andy's friends construct different words from his name: "an" words, "and" words, and "andy" words.

Strega Nona sends home gifts of candy and bubble bath while on vacation, but when Bambolona grabs the candy, Big Anthony is left with a lot of bubbles.

A retelling of the Comanche Indian legend of how a little girl's sacrifice brought the flower called bluebonnet to Texas.

At the request of a kind duke's loving daughter, La Colomba, a pure white bird, braves the bitter winter of the northern Italian mountains to sing for the gravely ill man.

Presents a variety of facts about popcorn and includes two recipes.

Bill the crocodile and his toothbrush, Pete the plover, set out to save Bill's cousin, who has been captured along with other endangered animals and taken from Egypt to Bad Guy's Big Bad Brother's Exotic Animal Farm near New Orleans, Louisiana.