‘Find the heart of the work’

The U.S. Postal Service just released a stamp that bursts with nostalgia: an homage to the beloved author and illustrator Tomie dePaola. It depicts his best-known character, Strega Nona, who earned him a Caldecott Medal in 1976, clutching her pasta pot and smiling at her peacock. The stamp inspired me to sift through my dePaola collection — his saint books, his condensed histories, his quirky stories and spooky tales. So much of dePaola’s Catholic upbringing appears in his richly colored folk art — the nuns and friars, the churches and baptisms — and the depiction of family life often mirrors his own Irish-Italian rituals.

DePaola treated young readers with intelligence, addressing their natural questions about life and death with books like “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs” and the hauntingly beautiful “The Clown of God.”

Painting in his New Hampshire studio in a 200-yearold barn, dePaola worked out his own aging. Books like “Now One Foot, Now the Other” and “Quiet” celebrate a gentler, slower pace. The very titles of some later books capture his philosophy of life: “Angels, Angels Everywhere,” “Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise” and “Look and Be Grateful.”

DePaola was once asked to offer guidance for creators of children’s books. Advice for artists often doubles as advice for living.

His response did not disappoint.

“If I look at my early things, it’s not there yet,” dePaola said. “I’m too full of myself, too full of showing off, showing how well I could crosshatch, for instance. I think that’s the progression of a young artist. You show off and then you — or I — suddenly find the heart of the work. I suddenly began to be faithful to the heart: the humor, the pathos, whatever is there.”

KATE SOUCHERAY