Farmer Tomie

Ryan, Matt, Julienne, Jacob and Kelsey are fifth graders in Ms. Skapof's class at Williston Central School in Williston, Vermont. They created the book FARMER TOMIE GOES TO THE FAIR.

Page one:
Once there was an adventurous farmer named Tomie. Farmer Tomie was on his way to the fair along with his sheep, Goldilocks, and his dog, Runaway.

The text for the above drawing:
Farmer Tomie saw the tiger in the jungle but the tiger didn't see him yet. They tried to runaway but Runaway accidentally stepped on a branch.

"Wait!" the tiger said.

"Run!" Tomie shouted.

"Stop! My name is Hobbes. You must be Farmer Tomie and Runaway the Dog and Goldilocks the Sheep," said Hobbes. "I was told to take you to Joe the Monkey. He was an acrobat in the fair. Hop on!"

"Okay, come on Runaway and Goldilocks," said Tomie.

"Okay!" they said.

Last page:
After meeting Ellie Elephant, Sara the Snake, Hobbes the Tiger, and Joe the Monkey, Tomie made it to the fair just in time for the animal show...

(Click on the drawing to get a better look.)

Strega Amelia Goes to Jail

Evan is in Teresa Adams's second grade class at Fairview Elementary in Columbia, Missouri. He wrote a story.

Strega Nona and the Baby

One day in a town in Calabria, a long time ago Strega Nona went to her garden to gather spicese. While in her garden she heard the cry of a baby so she went towards the sound. When she got to where the sound was comming from she saw a baby. So Strega Nona took the baby home to take care of it.

When she got home she told Big Anthony to build the baby a crib. While Big Anthony was busy Strega Nona made a lost baby sign to put in town square.

The next day Strega Nona went to check on the baby. But the baby was gone. So she went to town and ask everybody if they took the baby. But every body said no.

Then Strega Nona knew who took the baby it was Strega Amelia who took it so she marched down to Strega Amelia house to get the baby back. When she got thier Strega Amelia wasn't thier. So Strega Nona went to find her.

Then Strega Nona found her got the baby and found the rightful owener.

Then Strega Amelia in jail.

The End

The Story of Strega Ducky

Frankie is in Mrs. Schmidt's second grade class at Middle Gate Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut: I made a character like Strega Nona and it is called Strega Ducky. When we where watching a Tomie vidieo I tride to draw Strega Nona. The head looked like a duck's head. That's the story of Strega Ducky.

Strega Nona Meets the Three Bears

Alyssia is in Debi Barlow's second grade class at Yale Elementary in Aurora, Colorado: I'm getting to be a big kid. My birthday is April 15. I hope you can come. If not just send me a package.

Alyssia wrote a story: Strega Nona Meets the Three Bears
There was an old lady and her name was Strega Nona. Strega Nona was a witch. One day Strega Nona went to the woods. There she saw a house. Inside was three bowls of porridge. She tried all three bowls. The last one was the best bowl. Next, she wanted to rest. She tried all three chairs. The middle chair was the best. Next she was very sleepy. She found 3 beds. The biggest bed was the best. The 3 bears arrived home. They found out everything. When they got up stairs they found Strega Nona in papas bed. Strega Nona woke up. She did not run. She got out her magic pot and said the magic words. The 3 bears got scared and ran out. Strega Nona kept the house and lived happily ever after. The End.

Hat Book Reports

Jennifer Cairns was a student teacher at Mastricola Elementary in Merrimack, New Hampshire: When I learned that the students in the class would be creating a "hat book report," I was a little confused. As the information was further explained, I got very excited. I loved that the students could be creative assembling a hat that reflected the story that they read. I was even more excited when I learned that each student would be reading a book written by you. Just to name a few of the items that the hats included there was a red hat with a clock, a big pot of pasta, a chef's hat, a knight's hat with a dragon, a volcano, crayon boxes, and one which included long braids.

Tomie: What a clever idea!

Exhausted Bunny

Moffat was exhausted last night after helping dismantle two Christmas trees.

Moffat is visiting from Christy Howard's kindergarten class at Taylor Elementary in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Buried Under Paper Roses

Moffat helped take the paper roses off of the 12-foot Christmas tree.

Moffat is visiting from Christy Howard's kindergarten class at Taylor Elementary in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

February 7: Time to Take Down the Christmas Trees

Moffat and Tomie posed yesterday in front of the Marklin tree before Moffat helped take down the tree.

The Marklin tree is so named because the Tomie-designed ornaments were made by Marklin Candle Design.

Moffat is visiting from Christy Howard's kindergarten class at Taylor Elementary in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

www.marklincandle.com

Snow-throwing Bunny

While Tomie's Blog Blogger shoveled the most recent snowfall, Moffat used the snowthrower. Moffat is visiting from Christy Howard's kindergarten class at Taylor Elementary in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Thanks for the help, Moffat!

The Craftiest Kindergarten Class in America!

Mrs. Sue Meier's kindergarten class at South Elementary in Ithaca, Michigan, celebrated an Old Time Christmas in their classroom. They made quilt blocks, a covered wagon, Christmas stockings and hand-dipped candles. They sent me a card, a quilt block, a stocking, two hand-dipped candles, and photographs of their projects.

Happy New Year!

Left to Right: Tomie, Moffat, Mary Jo

Mary Jo is a former student of Tomie's. She visits on December 31st every year.

Moffat is a bunny. Moffat is visiting from Christy Howard's kindergarten class at Taylor Elementary in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Moffat had a great time celebrating the old year and the New Year. She's wearing a "Happy New Year" tiara.

Come One, Come All to the Tomie dePaola Fair!

Jane Hover and Mary Rice and the 1A children at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York: We are so excited about you that we have decided to host a Tomie dePaola Fair for 1A families and the second grade at Poly Prep! In class, each child will choose a favorite character from one of your books. During writing workshop, each child will take on a character's persona. On the day of the fair, each child will come to school dressed as their character, and sit at their booth encouraging parents, faculty and children to participate.

Jake: I want to be big anthony for the day.

Adam: I want to be Big Anthony for the day. I like him bekeos he olwas gets intnubul.

Zach: I rally want to dress up as cookie.

Natalie: I want to dress up as cookie.

Duke: I want to be little grunt.

Tomie: May I say that the Tomie dePaola Fair must have been THE BEST FAIR EVER?! What a great idea! Could there be more than one Big Anthony? Did Zach and Natalie want to be Cookie the cat from COOKIE'S WEEK, or did they want to dress up as cookies, such as, chocolate chip cookies?

The ABCs of Tomie dePaola

Jessica Kovacs is a student teacher in Mrs. Duffy's second grade class at Thomas Paine Elementary in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. At the end of Ms. Kovacs's author study, the class created a Tomie dePaola ABC Book.

Adelma is the artist for "D is for Tomie dePaola": I learned Tomie's last name does not begin with a capital letter. Only the P is capitalized because that's the way he likes to write it.

A is for Big Anthony
B is for Meet the Barkers
C is for The Cloud Book
D is for Tomie dePaola
E is for William Everett
F is for Four Friends in Autumn
G is for Little Grunt and the Big Egg
H is for Helga's Dowry
I is for Inga
J is for Joey
K is for The Knight and the Dragon
L is for The Legend of the Bluebonnet
M is for Moffie
N is for Strega Nona
O is for Oliver
P is for Pancakes for Breakfast
Q is for The Quilt Story
R is for T-Rex Is Missing
S is for Oliver Button Is a Sissy
T is for Tony's Bread
U is for Unusual
(Calvin: Strega Nona is an unusual tale because it is based on the folk tale "The Porridge Pot." The character Strega Nona was created and porridge was changed to pasta.)
V is for The Vanishing Pumpkin
W is for One-Who-Dearly-Loved-Her-People
X is for eXample of a great author
Y is for New York Times
(People love the work of Tomie dePaola. THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW said that dePaola is a "great contemporary picture-book writer.")
Z is for The Carsick Zebra

A Poem by Steven Smiley

Steven Smiley wrote a poem. He is in Mrs. Davidson's class at Hillview Intermediate Center in Grove City, Pennsylvania.

Tomie dePaola Poem

Tomie was born on September 15, 1934.
And he was all his parents had hoped for.

Tomie's mom was nicknamed Flossie.
And her lips were very glossy.

Tomie had an Irish & Italian ancestry.
Bet ya he had quite a story.

He had an older brother named Joe.
Sometimes he was Tomie's foe.

Tomie grew up in the Great Depression.
This probably left an impression.

On Tomie's 9th Christmas he got an easel for which he was thankful.
Tomie thought his easel was cool.

In 4th grade he sent a drawing to Walt Disney.
When Disney wrote back he was filled with glee.

In 1962 Tomie taught at Newton College of Sacred Heart.
There students learned some art.

For Strega Nona, Tomie received a Caldecott Award.
He would keep moving forward.

He appeared in several episodes of Barney & Friends.
Tomie's television appearances didn't come to an end.

Wright Bear, Arthur and Tomie

A classroom of second graders, their teacher and Dr. Gloria Kirkland Holmes of the University of Northern Iowa sent Wright Bear to several authors: Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Eric Carle, Sarah Pennypacker, Marc Brown and me. Here I am with Wright Bear and Arthur.

Girlfriend Number Twelve

Third grade students at Davy College in Cajamarca in the Andes of Peru had ideas for a story called BIG ANTHONY DISOBEYS AGAIN.

Yajaira and Rosa's story idea (the abridged version) is:
Strega Nona had a maid called Big Anthony who helped her to do the house chores. Strega Nona told him not to touch the flying carpet. The flying carpet takes you to a magic place called Happyland. There you can see a fairy, a castle and you can become a princess.

Strega Nona sings a special song to make the flying carpet fly. To come back home, Strega Nona sings a different song, and then claps three times. One day Big Anthony saw Strega Nona singing the songs, but he didn't see her clapping three times.

The next day he told everybody about the flying carpet and all the people laughed at him. His twelfth girlfriend called Cecilia told him, "It's over!" He was sad.

The other day he took the flying carpet, he sang the song and the carpet started to fly. He went to Happyland. One hour later he wanted to stop the flying carpet and go back home. He sang the song, but he didn't do the three claps so the carpet got crazy and Big Anthony thought that he was going to fall down.

When Strega Nona came back she noticed that Big Anthony disappeared so she knew that he disobeyed her again. To solve the problem, she went back to look for Big Anthony in Happyland.

The consequence for Big Anthony was to be the employee of Happyland for five years without being allowed to go back to town to see his girlfriend number twelve called Cecilia.

Flipping Nuggets!

Miss Elmendorf's second grade class at Overlook Primary in Poughkeepsie, New York, were inspired to create their own Strega Nona story. STREGA NONA AND THE MAGIC CHEESE POT is set in Colmerica (the countries of Colombia and America mixed together). A new character was introduced: Bob the cowboy (see above). "Howdy, y'all!"

Strega Nona caused the problems in this story. She used Bob's magic cheese pot to make macaroni and cheese, but she wanted to take a nap, and forgot to blow the three kisses to make the magic cheese pot stop before lying down and falling asleep.

"Flipping nuggets!" the townspeople said as the macaroni and cheese filled the town.

Big Anthony and Bob the cowboy sang the magic song, and blew the three kisses to stop the pot. Strega Nona and the townspeople ate all of the macaroni and cheese.

Strega Nona then woke up and realized it had all been a dream.

Happily Ever After

THE BOOK OF FRIENDS, by Aubriauna at John F. Kennedy Elementary in Winooski, Vermont.

Once upon a time, there was a lonely little girl. She had nobody to be friends with. Five days later, there was a little boy. He was a good little boy. The boy found the girl all alone. So he came to ask to be friends with her. So they played tag and sports. They were even in school together. Then they helped each other. They became best friends. I asked what his name was. He said Tomie dePaola. And they lived happily ever after. The End!

BILL AND PETE COME BACK TO AMERICA

Mrs. Estep's second grade class at Hilliard Horizon Elementary in Columbus, Ohio wrote and illustrated BILL AND PETE COME BACK TO AMERICA.

The text on this page:
Bill went over to the ice cream stand to get a double scoop cone. While Bill was turned around he didn't even notice the Bad Guy's Little Tiny Brother creeping up behind Bubba. The Bad Guy's Little Tiny Brother threw a net over him and dragged him away while Bill was still eating. Bill said, "I wonder where Bubba went, he must have gone back to the swamp."

Cute Characters and Appealing Style

Kimberly Denton Wright sent these books that she made for her family. I think her illustration style is appealing, and I've suggested that she pursue publication by joining the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and contacting a former editor of mine, Nora Cohen, at Children's Book Editing.

Click on the photo to get some detail.

www.scbwi.org
www.childrensbookediting.com