Features
Remembering Tomie dePaola: 1934-2020
Beloved author and illustrator Tomie dePaola passed yesterday, following complications from a fall. He was 85 years old.
Jen Loja, President, Penguin Young Readers said, “There are not enough adjectives to adequately describe Tomie and the joy he brought to so many children, teachers, and librarians, and to so many of us at Penguin Young Readers. As the story goes, he wanted to make books from a very young age. That meant the world had the pleasure of hearing his stories for over 80 years, all told with iconic art, incredible detail and always a twinkle in his eye. He will be terribly missed.”
Tomie’s longtime editor Nancy Paulsen shared, “There are a few people you meet in your life who have a profound effect on you and make you better just by knowing them. Tomie was one of those people. His deep love of life and all its miracles, his wealth of knowledge about history and religion, and his appetite to know as much as his could about life’s artists and prophets was absolutely inspiring. All of this made him not only an incredible author, but the best dinner companion you’d ever find. We are all so sad that we will never get to sit at his table again.”
Art Director Marikka Tamura, who worked with Tomie for the past 25 years at Putnam Books for Young Readers and then Nancy Paulsen Books, remembers, “Tomie was a brilliant creator of books for children because he was never far from his five-year-old self. He never lost the feelings and joys of that inner child, that excitement for life and art and food and ideas and birthdays and holidays and friendship. Tomie lived life full tilt, a riot of color and raucous laughter. He had a gift for making the world feel shinier, funnier, and more beautiful and delicious in every way. Lucky for us, that profound joy for life will continue to resonate on every page of the hundreds of books he brought into the world.”
Tomie dePaola was born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1934 to a family of Irish and Italian background. At the age of four, he said: “I’m going to be an artist. I’m going to write stories and draw pictures for books.” His determination led to a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and an MFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California, and to illustrating his first children’s book in 1965. He went on to write and/or illustrate more than 250 books for children. Over the course of his legendary career he received the 2012 Original Art Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Society of Illustrators; the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, given for a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature; a Newbery Honor for 26 Fairmount Avenue; and a Caldecott Honor for Strega Nona. He was awarded the Smithson Medal (from the Smithsonian) and the Regina Medal (from the Catholic Library Association), and was designated a “living treasure” by the state of New Hampshire. His Brava, Strega Nona, Strega Nona’s Harvest, and Strega Nona’s Gift were all New York Times bestsellers.
Tomie dePaola
1934-2020
