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On Tomie dePaola

 I needed to restock Joshua's supply of library books, so I borrowed "Peter's Chair," "Fog Island," and "Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs."


This last book is like the blue-ribbon standard when you think of children's literature. Tomie dePaola sometimes told folk tales, and he sometimes tried expository writing, but a special part of his life was devoted to autobiography. When he draws on his childhood--in "Oliver Button," "The Baby Sister," "The Art Lesson," "Nana Upstairs"--he really seems to enjoy himself.

In "Nana Upstairs," young Tomie feels proud that he has a living grandmother *and* a living great-grandmother. The great-grandmother "lives upstairs" -- perhaps to hold on to one symbolic piece of independence -- and Tomie often visits. Nana Upstairs needs cloth restraints when she eats, so Tomie, in an act of love, requests his *own* set of cloth restraints.

The boy and his great-grandmother chew on mints from a little cup next to the sewing kit, and the great-grandmother describes tiny leprechauns who live "in the mirror." You can sense that these moments were the beginnings of dePaola's own creative life.

A fine, climactic scene has Nana Upstairs letting down her braids. The sight unnerves Tomie's brother, but Tomie--the sensitive artist--defends "the wild hair." Tomie says, "It's beautiful."

I don't think this is high-stakes storytelling, but it's easy to get invested, because you sense that dePaola is digging deep into his own past. He is speaking from the heart. Without getting maudlin, he pulls you in.

I wish there were more writers with a gift like this.









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