Merry Christmas, Strega Nona.

DEPAOLA, Tomie.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 114827

San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1986.

First edition of Tomie de Paola’s Christmas children’s classic. Quarto, original illustrated boards, story and pictures by Tomie dePaola. Lengthily signed by the author opposite the title page, “‘It’s just like you,’ said Strega Nona. Big Anthony smiled. ‘Christmas has a magic of its own.’ Tomie 2016.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. With a promotional postcard featuring a 2015 self-portrait of dePaola laid in.

American writer and illustrator Tomie dePaola created more than 260 children's books throughout his career, including his beloved Strega Nona series about a "Grandma Witch" and her helper, Big Anthony. The first book in the series, Strega Nona, was published in 1975 and won a Caldecott Honor in 1976. In the third book in the Strega Nona series, Merry Christmas, Strega Nona, the title character abandons her usual pursuits in order to prepare a Christmas dinner for the entire town.