History Literature / StregaNona

** In ''Strega Nona's Harvest'', Big Anthony listens to the spell that Strega Nona recites to make her garden grow, and recites it perfectly, including blowing the three kisses[[note]]The "secret ingredient" to Strega Nona's magic is love.[[/note]] -- though he blows three extra, just to make sure. Partly due to this, and partly due to his planting seeds willy-nilly instead of in carefully arranged rows, his garden grows haphazardly, and with more vegetables than he can handle. Things turn out OK in the end, though; Strega Nona (who remains none the wiser as to where the extra veggies came from[[note]]Big Anthony keeps leaving them outside her door during the night, until her pantry is full to bursting[[/note]]) [[spoiler: lends many of them to the local convent, and then uses the rest to create a harvest feast for the entire village.]]

# ''Big Anthony and the Magic Ring'' (1979): Big Anthony comes down with "spring fever," and Strega Nona advises him that what he needs is "a little Night Life." After watching Strega Nona utilize a magical ring to make herself young and beautiful again, Anthony is inspired to use it to make himself attractive, too, and go out on the town. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works a little]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight well]]... (Republished in 2018 as ''Strega Nona's Magic Ring''.)

* ''Strega Nona'' (1975): Inspired by the German folktale "The Porridge Pot." Big Anthony discovers that Strega Nona's pasta pot is magic, and tries to show it off to the local people. Unfortunately, he misses a key step in getting the pot to stop cooking, and the village is inundated with pasta.
* ''Big Anthony and the Magic Ring'' (1979): Big Anthony comes down with "spring fever," and Strega Nona advises him that what he needs is "a little Night Life." After watching Strega Nona utilize a magical ring to make herself young and beautiful again, Anthony is inspired to use it to make himself attractive, too, and go out on the town. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works a little]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight well]]... (Republished in 2018 as ''Strega Nona's Magic Ring''.)
* ''Strega Nona's Magic Lessons'' (1982): Bambolona, the baker's daughter, is frustrated with the grueling task of helping in her father's bakery. She consults Strega Nona, who takes her under her wing and begins instructing her in magic and healing. Big Anthony wants to learn magic, too, but there are a couple of problems: (1) His short attention span results in him messing up royally; and (2) traditional medicine has historically been women's work. (Republished in 2017.)
* ''Merry Christmas, Strega Nona'' (1986): Strega Nona needs to prepare her annual Yuletide feast for the village, but the only person available to help is the bumbling Big Anthony. Will the annual tradition be ruined?
* ''Strega Nona Meets Her Match'' (1993): Strega Nona's childhood friend and schoolmate, Strega Amelia, comes to town, equipped with more "modern" methods of magic. Soon, she has nearly put dear Strega Nona out of business. Fortunately, Big Anthony manages to (inadvertently) save the day, in his usual manner.
* ''Strega Nona: Her Story'' (1996): This book covers Strega Nona's early life, from her birth through her tutelage under Grandma Concetta to the day she met Big Anthony.
* ''Big Anthony: His Story'' (1998): Following Big Anthony from birth, we see how his AttentionDeficitOohShiny tendencies caused trouble for him, both at home while growing up, and when searching for work as an adult, concluding with his meeting Strega Nona.
* ''Strega Nona Takes a Vacation'' (2000): One night, Strega Nona has a dream about her late mentor, Grandma Concetta. The next day, Strega Nona is uncharacteristically distracted, leading everyone -- even Big Anthony -- to suggest that she take a vacation. So, she decides to go to the seashore for a week, leaving Anthony and Bambolona to look after business for her. [[TemptingFate What could possibly go wrong?]]
* ''Strega Nona's Harvest'' (2009): As she does every year, Strega Nona carefully plans the layout of her garden before planting. With a little loving magic, her garden grows beautifully. Big Anthony tries to grow a garden of his own, but he's not so careful. Soon, he has more produce than he can handle.
* ''Strega Nona's Gift'' (2011): It's the holiday season, and everyone in Strega Nona's village is preparing for all the feast days, including the Feasts of San Nicola and Epiphany. Even the animals get to join in the festivities, as one feast involves cooking special foods just for them. But when Big Anthony smells the treats that Strega Nona is preparing for her animals, his stomach gets the better of him. Will Big Anthony be able to make up for his mistake?
* ''Strega Nona Does it Again'' (2013): Strega Nona's young cousin, Angelina, comes to stay for a short while. Unfortunately, Angelina is a vain, spoiled brat, who orders around Bambolona and Big Anthony nonstop. As it turns out, she's hopelessly in love with a young man who is too self-absorbed to notice her. Strega Nona devises a plan to bring the two youngsters together, and thus make life easier for all concerned.
* ''Strega Nona and Her Tomatoes'' (2017): A book for beginning readers. Strega Nona has harvested her tomatoes and is counting them out before donating them to the convent. However, when she turns her back for just a moment, Big Anthony, wanting to be helpful, puts the tomatoes back in the basket, thus making Strega Nona lose count.
* ''Strega Nona and the Twins'' (2017): A book for beginning readers. Strega Nona is looking after twins for the day, with Bambolona and Big Anthony pitching in. The twins, of course, are very rambunctious, but Strega Nona knows how to handle them.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Bambolona first appeared as a minor character in the second book –- an AbhorrentAdmirer to Big Anthony. In the third book she became Strega Nona's apprentice, and for the rest of the series was a competent assistant in contrast to Big Anthony's irresponsibility. Her crush on him also disappeared.

** Grandma Concetta counts as one, too; after all, she taught Strega Nona everything that she knows.

* ForceFeeding: Big Anthony defies Strega Nona's orders not to touch her magic pasta pot and serves up a meal for the townspeople. However, he does not completely know how to make it stop cooking pasta, and he unwittingly fills up Strega Nona's house and nearly destroys the town with pasta before Strega Nona can intervene. Afterward, she orders Big Anthony to eat the enormous amount of pasta he conjured up by nightfall, so she can sleep in her bed, in lieu of punishment from the townspeople. He does so, [[BalloonBelly becoming fat and sickly along the way.]]

* IncomingHam: In ''Strega Nona: Her Story'', Giuseppe and Zia Rosa are waiting for Strega Nona's mother, who is also his wife, and his or her sister to finally give birth to Strega Nona.
-->Giuseppe says that every child they had was brought into the world by Grandma Concetta, but in the storm,\\
he fears she can't come over there.\\
Hours pass, and Giuseppe is scared.\\
He asks Zia Rosa where the baby is. \\
Zia Rosa knows the baby is waiting.\\
Giuseppe quickly cries, "For what"?\\
On cue, Grandma Concetta bursts in.\\
A gust of wind blowing her indoors.\\
"For Me!", she cries, "no grandchild of mine can be born without, me"!!!\\
She takes off her theatrical cloak, rolls up her sleeves, and heads for the bedroom, asking Rosa to follow, with the baby being ready to come.\\
Sure enough, the girl is then born.\\
Grandma Concetta names their child Nona, and declares her as a Strega.\\
Her large ham gave the baby life.

* OurWitchesAreDifferent: As her name suggests, Strega Nona is a witch (or, at the very least, has magical powers), but she's a very kind old woman who uses her magic and knowledge of herbs to help people around her.
* RadishCure: The first book is a SorcerersApprenticePlot starring the titular grandmotherly witch and her magic pot that produces pasta on command. The apprentice in question, Big Anthony, wants some pasta, so while Strega Nona is out, he says the magic words to produce the pasta. However, he doesn't know that he has to blow three kisses to make the pasta pot stop making pasta. His punishment for having flooded the entire village with pasta is having to eat all of it.
* SobriquetSexSwitch: In ''Strega Nona's Magic Lessons'', Big Anthony is jealous when he sees Strega Nona teaching magic to a visitor but refusing to teach him because of his spectacular fails with magic in the past. To learn magic from her, he dresses up as a girl and calls himself "Antonia".
* SorcerersApprenticePlot: In the first book, when Big Anthony sees that Strega Nona can magically produce pasta from her cooking pot but doesn't pay attention to how she gets it to stop. When he tries to show it off to the townsfolk while she's gone, the village is drowning in pasta by the time she gets back.

''Strega Nona'' is a series of storybooks by Tomie [=dePaola=].

* SorcerersApprenticePlot: In the first book, when Big Anthony sees that Strega Nona can magically produce pasta from her cooking pot...but doesn't pay attention to how she gets it to stop. When he tries to show it off to the townsfolk while she's gone, the village is drowning in pasta by the time she gets back.

* ''Strega Nona and Her Tomatoes'' (2017): A book for beginning readers. Strega Nona has harvested her tomatoes, and is counting them out before donating them to the convent. However, when she turns her back for just a moment, Big Anthony, wanting to be helpful, puts the tomatoes back in the basket, thus making Strega Nona lose count.

* AesopAmnesia: From his very first appearance, Big Anthony keeps getting into trouble when he tries to use Strega Nona's magic, and learns that it should only be used by someone who knows how to use it -- yet it never seems to stick.

* DumbBlonde: {{Downplayed}} with Big Anthony. He's not ''stupid'' so much as easily-distracted, but his AesopAmnesia and impulsivity tend to cloud his judgement.

* GoneHorriblyRight: In ''Strega Nona's Harvest'', Big Anthony listens to the spell that Strega Nona recites to make her garden grow, and recites it perfectly, including blowing the three kisses[[note]]The "secret ingredient" to Strega Nona's magic is love.[[/note]] -- though he blows three extra, just to make sure. Partly due to this, and partly due to his planting seeds willy-nilly instead of in carefully arranged rows, his garden grows haphazardly, and with more vegetables than he can handle. Things turn out OK in the end, though; Strega Nona (who remains none the wiser as to where the extra veggies came from[[note]]Big Anthony keeps leaving them outside her door during the night, until her pantry is full to bursting[[/note]]) [[spoiler: lends many of them to the local convent, and then uses the rest to create a harvest feast for the entire village.]]
** An earlier example: In ''Big Anthony and the Magic Ring'', when the lovable oaf uses Strega Nona's ring to make himself handsome, and goes out dancing in the village square, the ladies start hounding him to dance with each of them, not even giving him a moment to catch his breath. To make matters worse, the ring gets stuck on his finger, preventing him from undoing the spell.