Stories for Growing
Cover of Strega NonaAges 4 to 8
Thinking aheadResponsibility

Strega Nona

Tomie dePaola

Ages 4 to 8
About this age guidance

Simon & Schuster: 4–8; Amazon listing: preschool to grade 3

The age tag follows Simon & Schuster. Other sources may suggest different ages. This is audience guidance, not an independent reading level.

Listed under responsibility and self-reliance in a newsletter list of picture books about values. The list gives only the title.

Strega Nona warns her helper Big Anthony never to touch her magic pasta pot. While she is away he uses it to show off to the townspeople, but he does not know how to stop it, and the pasta nearly buries the town. When Strega Nona comes back and stops it, she makes him eat all of it.

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What children see in the story

Big Anthony uses the pot without knowing how to stop it, and the pasta nearly buries the town. The result he did not think about is a very large one, and he has to eat his way out of it. Big Anthony made the mess, so Strega Nona has him clean it up himself by eating every bit. The fix matches what he did.

Why it’s on these shelves

Thinking ahead
Big Anthony uses Strega Nona’s magic pasta pot while she is away, without knowing how to stop it. The pasta nearly buries the whole town, and in the end he has to eat all of it himself.
Responsibility
Big Anthony caused the pasta flood, so Strega Nona has him clean up the mess in the only way possible. The angry villagers want him punished hard, but she picks a fix that fits what he did.

Why pick it up?

The pot is stopped and the town is saved; Big Anthony eats all the pasta he made, a comic and clearly fitting consequence.

A note for parents

The townspeople shout for harsh punishment, a cartoonish threat that Strega Nona overrules with a fitting one (Kirkus). A parent may want to say that the pasta is the punishment. Replaces an earlier held record that flagged risk without consequence and deception. The full record found no deception, and the consequence and fix are clear in three sources. The values are consequences and responsibility by contrast: Big Anthony models what to avoid and then does the fix, and the moments say only that.

Where this recommendation comes from

Can we read?

Listed under responsibility and self-reliance in a newsletter list of picture books about values. The list gives only the title.

Read Sarah Miller’s recommendation
Sources and review status

We have checked source descriptions and drafted the value mapping. We have not personally reviewed the full book. The value labels, situation assignments, and parent notes remain provisional.

Publisher or literacy resource · Original recommendation

Our explanation of the value fit is separate from the original reviewer’s judgment. Their inclusion here does not imply an endorsement of Stories for Growing.

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