Children’s books: posthumous stories of Tomie dePaola, a gift for fans

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I’ve been writing about children’s books for over four decades, so it’s no wonder some of my favorite authors and illustrators have left this death spiral by now. Still, losing Eric Carle in May was surprising; The 91-year-old author / illustrator of classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar seemed ubiquitous in the field of children’s literature. Also Tomie dePaola, who died in March last year, after a fall. He was 85 years old.

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In dePaola’s case, two posthumous volumes were published this year: an updated version of a coffee table art book first published in 1999 and now titled The Worlds of Tomie dePaola, by Barbara Elleman; and Christina’s Carol, a new picture book based on a poem by Christina Rossetti. Both are published by Simon & Schuster.

DePaola was best known for Strega Nona, a folk tale about an elderly witch and her somewhat awkward assistant, Big Anthony. It was published in 1975, the year my first child was born, an event that apparently qualified me, two years later, to review children’s books for a local newspaper in western Canada.

When I heard, in 1982, that dePaola was scheduled to speak at the Toronto Public Library, I assembled the airfare, booked a small room at the Windsor Arms Hotel, and agreed to interview the author / illustrator in his (much larger) room at the same hotel.

We sat on his bed and talked, mainly about his most recent picture book, Francisco, the poor man from Assisi, which was being published to coincide with the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis. (DePaola, whose family had roots in Italy and Ireland, was fascinated by religious themes and stories of the saints.)

Today, some 40 years later, I only have a vivid memory of DePaola’s words. He is the first person to explain to me that when illustrating picture books intended for young children, an artist has to do more than simply reflect the author’s words.

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To paraphrase, since I no longer have my notes from that interview: “You are dealing with children to whom an adult reads, children who have not yet learned to read by themselves. But as an illustrator, it’s your job to do more than just represent the author’s story. You have to create surprises for the child to discover that the parents may not immediately notice. Children read the pictures, not the words; you have to give them things to discover ”.

Over the years, I have often seen the truth of what he told me. The best picture books are those that speak to both adults and children, but not necessarily at the same time or about the same thing.

A recent email interview with Laurent Linn, art director at Simon & Schuster, who created the cover for The Worlds of Tomie dePaola, confirmed the importance of the artist’s connection with his young audience.

“I learned a lot from Tomie, from our work relationship and from our friendship,” Linn said. “But one thing that stands out above all is his extraordinary connection to his childhood and his first discoveries of the world. More than anyone he has ever met, he truly understood the mind of a child and what it means to be often invisible to others, but see everything for oneself.

“He was always curious and very thoughtful about how he created characters and told stories for children, knowing how observant and intelligent they were. I felt that responsibility deeply. “

His latest picture book features a classic Christmas carol, In the Bleak Midwinter, first published as a poem in 1872. I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t immediately spring to mind when I think of Christmas carols, and I probably won’t remove Jingle Bells from the book. list of favorite songs of a child’s season.

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But DePaola’s colorful and stylish folk art gives Christina’s Carol great appeal and can lead parents and kids alike to visit YouTube presentations online. DePaola had completed four paintings, enough to fill eight pages, before dying. The rest of the art in this 32-page book is cleverly and seamlessly drawn from previous publications and DePaola’s personal collection.

“It contains the latest art he created for a book,” Linn said. “He started working on book art in mid-2019 and as you can see from those first few pages, he created such extraordinary paintings over the months that he was able to work on it. But tragically, he couldn’t illustrate the entire book. “

Because dePaola “loved this book in the world” and “because she loved Christmas on so many levels,” the decision was made to go ahead and publish it. “I thought: What better tribute to Tomie’s legacy than to make Christina’s Carol a treasure of Tomie’s Christmas art?” Linn said.

“In late 2018, talented editor Kristin Ostby and I spent a day with Tomie in her studio talking about this book while he worked on the pagination and images that he could create. He talked about what the poem and the carol meant to him: he loved him so much and spoke to him, so he wanted to create a picture book with the poem as the text.

“Those first few pages of the book are very revealing; Entering the book into Christina’s world as a writer was her way of showing how she enters a story. Coming from the outside world, full of ideas, to the inner world of the studio and that blank page where the creation of a new world begins.

“I vividly remember how he described his interpretation of each line of the poem and each moment, and I used what he shared with us to select the illustrations that best fit Tomie’s vision of those words.”

And there, in front of a nativity scene on page 23, is the rear view of a familiar figure in a cape: a grandmother witch greeting the newborn baby Jesus. It’s a welcome sight for dePaola fans and a reminder that while the artist might be gone, his work, and the personal connections of countless children to his books, are still alive.

– Bernie Goedhart