This is the New Hampshire Authors’ Series from the Dimond Library at the University of New Hampshire.

♪♪ -Hello, I'm Rebecca Rule.

I'm here at the Dimond Library on the campus of the University of New Hampshire.

Three times a year, I sit before a live audience and talk with an author who calls New Hampshire home.

Today I'm speaking with Tomie dePaola.

Yes, Tomie dePaola, the beloved children's writer and illustrator.

So come inside and get a front row seat.

Tomie dePaola, writer and artist, has published 237 books so far.

[Tomie chuckles] They're published in 15 different countries and more than 6 million copies have sold.

Among many honors, he's received both the Caldecott and Newbery awards.

He's even been named a living treasure, and he knows how to tap dance.

[laughter] Perhaps his most beloved character is Strega Nona, who creates magic with a secret ingredient passed down from her grandmother.

Love, her grandmother tells her it is the same with all your magic.

Always love.

Tomie's biographer, Barbara Elliman writes, it is, of course, dePaola's underlying message to young readers that love should underscore their work and their lives.

That he loves his work is clear.

Equally clear, his work is loved throughout the world, but especially here in New Hampshire, the state he calls home.

Welcome, Tomie dePaola.

-Thank you Rebecca.

[applause] Thank you so much.

[Tomie chuckles] [applause continues] [applause continues] -We’re glad to have you.

[muffled] -Thank you.

[applause dwindles] -You've been in this business for about 40 years.

-A little over 40 now, yeah.

-And you're only 41 years old.

-I'm only-- [Tomie laughs] -So you started very young.

-Thank goodness I’m not anymore.

-So-- -The 40s were a terrible time.

[Rebecca chuckles] -So how do you manage to keep your work fresh?

-I have a mortgage.

[laughter] -Okay, next question.

[laughter continues] -You know, I really don't know how I-- I think it's because, I, [Tomie chuckles] I've never been able to rest on my laurels or, you know, or whatever.

And I was born in 1934 during the depression.

So there's two things, and this is just not me, but most people who were born during the depression, there's two things none of us ever refuse and that's a meal and a job.

-Yeah.

-Because, you know, that was you know, those were very hard things to come by during the depression, even if you were a baby.

But, I always, you know, when I finish a piece of work, of course, in publishing, I finish a piece of work, and then it's a year before I see it in print, as a book, as a finished book.

Because I'm always working about a year ahead, and so it's, okay that's done, so I have to get on to the next job because it's, it's the same way with cooking, you know?

I mean, you know, you finish your dinner and then there's breakfast to do, right?

And it's the same sort of thing.

-It never ends.

-It never ends.

So that's that's kind of how I keep it fresh.

-Yeah.

-Well thank you, because sometimes I'm not so sure it is as fresh as I'd like it to be, but that's, that's my problem and not the readers, I hope.

-Well you start-- your book that you just published this winter, this December, is for adults.

-Yeah, or for families or, it is a-- in my head, it's an adult book, yeah.

-So, 236 books for children?

-Right.

-One book for adults.

-Well, so far, so far, -So far.

-yeah I've got some other, I’ve got some other adult ideas in my head.

-Well talk about that, that shift and I know you're still going to be doing books for-- -Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah of course, because-- -Why this, why is this this book more for families?

-Well, you know, I've been doing books for over 40 years, so, you know, I've got fans were in their 30s and 40s now, so I figured-- -They’re here tonight.

-They're here, look and, I love it when, you know, I love it when they come and say, you know, you taught my grandmother in college because I did teach for a long time.

I really have, [Tomie grunts] but I, I found out recently, that the stories of my own childhood in my, in my chapter books, young people like those stories a lot.

And, I've got a lot of stories of things that happened to me, you know, after I graduated from high school or went, you know, and a lot of them involve things that grownups do, like drinking and going to nightclubs and things like that.

And Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

-Yeah.

-And I realize that I've spent well in my memory a good 65, 68 Christmases because I'm 72, and I wanted to share some of my favorite Christmas memories with everybody.

And some of them happened to me when I was grown up, and they may not interest children that much because they don't maybe have that experience.

-Well, I want to talk a little bit about your very distinctive style.

-Oh, okay.

-I mean, I can pick up a book anywhere and open it up and I know a Tomie dePaola book.

-Oh, thank you.

-I mean, we do, don't, we do, we know his you, we know your work, and it's developed over time, and you have some, you know, recurring symbols, recurring symbols, the bells, -Yeah, yeah.

-the white birds, the heart.

-The heart, you know, is in place of writing out love.

And it became-- it's a trademark now and, and if I sign and, you and I come back for a book tour, I'd be very careful when I'm signing my checks.

[laughter] Years ago, you know, banks are now bigger, New Hampshire's growing, but years ago, when I first moved to New London, you know, the lady at the bank whom I knew, she'd say, oh, back from book tour?

[laughter] Because all my checks would have a heart there with Tomie on it.

[laughter] -Well think back a long, long time, -Yes, a long, long time.

-to when you were just starting out in the business and there was hardly anybody at your signings.

Maybe there wasn’t even a signing.

-I remember those days.

-Maybe you hadn't even published a book yet.

Think about-- can you remember that far back?

Think way back-- -When I hadn't published a book yet?

Yes I do remember.

-And I'm wondering if there, there must have been a point where you thought, oh, this is, this is right for me.

I'm on the right road.

And there must have been other times when you thought, boy, I don't know if I'm going to make it in this business, but I'm just wondering if you have advice for people who are just starting out, writers or artists starting out the way you did?

[faint chuckling] -I think that if you have the desire to do something and I didn't have a choice, I really didn't have a choice.

I just had this drive, and then, of course, I was, I had luck, I worked hard, and I remember at Pratt one of my instructors saying, no matter how famous you become, there's always someone around the corner that's ready to take your job.

-Sure.

-So it's for me, it's a constant kind of keeping the energy going.

Constantly reinventing my, the way I look at the world.

The way I accept the world.

It's not always right, but, so if anybody out there in the audience, if they, if you haven't, I don't, don't let your dream die.

That's I think you know, you hang on, you have a dream and a dream, the value of a dream is to make it real.

Yeah, that's the real value of a dream is to make it real.

There's some dreams I've had that I wouldn't want to be real, but, [laughter] I'm not talking about those kind of dreams, but.

And my style.

I that's, again, comes from Pratt.

One of my classmates said to the instructor, one of the instructors, when are we going to learn about style?

And he said, well, first of all, you don't have enough experience to even talk about style.

Style isn't something you learn.

Style is something that you are.

-Yes.

-And then the greatest advice I was ever given was by Ben Shahn, the very famous artist who was my mentor at a summer art school in Maine.

And he said, being an artist is not only what you do, it's the way you live your life.

And, that can be lice-- it gives me license to be crazy.

[laughter] -Well, speaking of that.

-Yes, yes.

[Rebecca chuckles] -I wonder if you would read us a little story from your, from your fair-- 26, Fairmount -Oh, sure.

-Avenue collection there are several of these books.

I was thinking of the Peter Rabbit.

Because it kind of illustrates, it says a little something about who you are and who you were.

All these books are, if you haven't read them they're wonderful books about Tomie’s childhood.

-I have this great assistant, Bob Hetchel, and if you notice on the little post it says Peter Rabbit.

You must have talked to him so he knew you-- -I need an assistant like Bob Hetchel.

-He's not for sale.

[laughter] -But this is a book for children -Yes, it is.

-It’s a chapter book.

-Yes, it is.

-It’s one of the series.

-I started to write-- Let me just interrupt for a minute, because I started writing chapter books you know, I'm known for my picture books, which are usually 32 pages with a picture on every page, usually in full color, and chapter books.

Chapter books are a rite of passage.

Children, I was getting all these letters, when, would you write me a chapter book?

And I love it, grown ups say to me, well, what's a chapter book?

A chapter book is a book with chapters.

[laughter] -We learned it here.

-Right.

But for young people, it's a book with chapters that's like a passage to get to like the bigger books, the older books.

So they're very important first chapter books.

-Well, here's a chapter.

-Our kindergarten class was going to put on a play for the whole school.

We were going to do Peter Rabbit.

I had played the part of John Alden, the Pilgrim, in the Thanksgiving play we did for the first grade.

I didn't forget any of my lines or anything.

The way Miss Emich smiled at me when she said, Peter Rabbit made me sure that she was going to pick me to play Peter.

I know the story so well.

And besides, Miss Leah, who was my dancing school teacher, said that I had natural stage presence.

[laughter] As much as I love being on stage, my best friend Jeannie didn't.

She was shy and very tall for her age.

So I decided that Jeannie should play the part of the mouse who mumbles because he has peas in her mouth when Peter asked for directions out of Mr. McGregor's garden.

She wouldn't have to remember any lines, just mumble.

I showed her how to puff out her cheeks and say [Tomie mumbles] [laughter] Every day on the way home we practiced.

Finally the day for giving out the parts arrived.

All right, boys and girls, let's bring our chairs into a circle.

We each had a little colored chair with our names on a cardboard tag tied to the back, just like the naps mats.

[chuckling] Jeannie sat down next to me.

I could tell she was nervous.

I leaned over very quietly and whispered.

Now, when Miss Emich asks who would like to play the mouse?

Raise your hand and show how you can mumble.

And don't forget-- [in a stern voice] Tomie!

There you go talking again.

[laughter] Won't you ever learn?

[Rebecca chuckles] Since you can't pay attention, you will not play Peter Rabbit.

[audience] -Ohhh.

These are smart people here.

[laughter] Peter will be played by Johnny Gregory.

You will be Flopsy.

[laughter] But Flopsy is a girl, I protested.

Not in our play, Miss Emich said.

Now, boys and girls, I will read you the story.

Well, I was certainly disappointed.

I would be Flopsy, along with Nancy Kibbet and Carolyn Caimans as mops and cottontail.

We had to make our own rabbit ears and wear little red capes made out of stretchy crepe paper.

At dancing school Miss Leah had told us how to act on stage.

When someone is talking or singing or dancing, be sure to look at them and react.

That's one of the most important things to do when you are on stage.

That's what I’d do.

[laughter] Flopsy would react to everything that was going on with Peter.

[laughter continues] But I'd wait until the real performance and not do anything when we were just practicing.

[laughter] It would be a surprise.

[laughter] So in front of the whole school, the students from all the grades, the teachers, Miss Burke, the principal, Miss Philomena, the school secretary, Miss Looby, the nurse and Mr. Walters, the school janitor and our parents.

Flopsy, reacted.

[laughter] When Peter went into Mr. McGregor's garden and he wasn't supposed to, I’d clasp my hands in shock.

[laughter] Every time Peter did something, I did something to.

I waved my arms around.

I covered my eyes.

I put my hands over my ears.

I opened my mouth, wide and surprised.

I could hear the audience laughing.

The grown ups even clapped a couple of times.

When it was over, Flopsy had stolen the show.

[laughter] Jean Miner was great as Mrs. Rabbit.

Jack Rule was scary as Mrs.-- Mr. McGregor.

Jeannie was wonderful as the mumbling mouse with peas in her mouth.

Johnny Gregory was okay as Peter, but I was the hit of the play.

Miss Mulligan, the fifth grade teacher who played the piano at our auditorium shows, came up to me and said, well, Tomie, you sure-- certainly know how to steal the show.

You're a real ham.

I looked over at my mom.

She waved, how proud she must be.

[laughter] Miss Emich didn't say much, except boys and girls, you all did a very nice job.

She didn't say anything special to me.

I suppose she was sorry that she hadn't asked me to be Peter Rabbit after all.

[laughter] Our parents all came into the kindergarten room to take us home.

Well, Tomie, my mom said, that was quite a performance.

I smiled a big smile.

I think you owe Johnny Gregory and Miss Emich an apology.

It wasn't very nice of you to take all the attention.

After all, you were just one of the bunnies, not the star.

So tomorrow you'll say you're sorry to Johnny and Miss Emich, okay?

I looked down at the floor and nodded.

Jeannie came over to say hello.

Jeannie, mom said you were perfect, congratulations.

Tomie showed me how to do it, Jeannie said.

He should have been Peter.

The next day at school, I said I was sorry, to Miss Emich and Johnny Gregory.

I did it when no one else could hear me, though.

[laughter] I guess I was only a little sorry.

[laughter] [applause] [applause] [Rebecca laughs] [applause] [Tomie and Rebecca chuckle] It's all true.

[laughter] That's the scary part, isn't it?

Oh-- -Well, what amazes me about your work is not only do remember all these things, but you seem to be able to channel that young Tomie when you write.

-Oh thank you!

I consider that a real compliment.

-It's meant to be.

-Thank you.

[Tomie chuckles] -He's in there, isn't he?

-I do have a good memory.

-Amazing.

-And the memory was also buoyed up by the fact that, I come from an Irish-Italian family so there was a lot of storytelling in my family.

Especially, especially, like, do you remember when you were young and what you did?

And we also had home movies so that-- -That helps.

-you know, solidifies memory.

-Yeah.

-And also I really throw this out to everybody, the more you remember, the more you remember.

It's like using that part of the brain, that memory, part of the brain that, you know, it's like you’re a computer, you know, you've got something, you know, way there on your desktop or somewhere, you know, and suddenly it shows up one day you think, oh, I forgot that was there.

-Well, what I love and I'll just mention this about the book, why and all the all the Fairmount Avenue series is we have these wonderful moments of memory and then big questions like why and the why that he's asking there is because, Tomie, your cousin, had been killed in World War Two.

-Yeah, these are the new-- the newer ones are called the Warriors.

-The Warriors.

-Because, I was in school and my, my cousin, my favorite cousin, Blackie, he gave me a hula skirt.

He had been in Hawaii, and he bought a hula skirt for me.

And, my brother said, yeah, my older brother, good, sissy and Blackie said, no, that's a man's hula skirt.

[laughter] But, you know, Anthony was, he was one of the, one of the first, sort of victims of World War Two, he was a belly gunner, and he was, the plane was shot down, and, and that was a big question.

Why was there a war?

Why was Blackie killed?

Why?

-Questions that we're still asking aren’t we?

-Yes we are, isn't that something?

And I didn't plan it that way, to be perfectly honest.

-And the one previous to that is called I'm Still Scared.

-Still scared.

-About the fear-- you know, it's right after Pearl Harbor-- -Yes.

In fact, I'm Still Scared which is this book here.

It came out last year.

This whole book takes place in just, like, a couple of weeks.

-Yeah, everything's changed.

-It takes place-- -Everything-- everything changed from Pearl Harbor.

The, the attack on Pearl Harbor.

December 7th, 1941.

-Yeah.

I think we should talk to the audience, -Oh, good.

-and see if they have any questions for you.

You know, I'm a professional interviewer, so we don't expect anything fancy like I did.

But just do your best.

[laughter] Do your best, and people will come around with a microphone, and Tomie will maybe answer some of your questions.

-I tell everything, almost.

-He tells everything.

-Hi, I was wondering what inspired you to start writing and illustrating children's books?

I know you said when you were younger you wanted to be an artist, but how did you come to make that decision?

-Oh well, I told, I told everybody that I was going to be an artist, and I was going to write stories and draw pictures for books.

And I think that was because my mother read, read to me and my older brother, and eventually my two younger sisters.

But my mother read to us every single night, and we didn't have picture books like children have nowadays, which, but I had and I have them.

We had a wonderful collection of books called The Children's Hour, and it was like the Book House, you know, one of those collections.

That would have, excerpts from, from fables and history and, and beautiful Tipton illustrations.

So the only books, all I knew was I had to get to school because I had to learn how to read.

And I've been an avid reader since first grade.

And, and that was quite a long time ago.

But, and, the first art I ever saw was in, in books.

So it just clicked.

And I think that, I think that there are people, I'm not I'm not unique in this respect.

A lot of my artists and dancer and actor and mus-- and musician friends all knew what they were going to do with their adult life when they were very young.

And the only thing, the main thing we all have in common is that some grown up listened to us and believed us.

Now, I was very fortunate in that my parents believed me.

And in the Christmas-- remember that Christmas where all I got was art supplies, that was the affirmation.

I was around 11.

They were affirming the fact that I was going to be an artist when I grew up.

And of course, books are a wonderful way, you know, to combine the whole thing of literature and art all at once.

I love the narrative painters as well as the abstract painters, but I love narrative painting.

And in children's books, you've got the best of all possible worlds, as an artist.

-Absolutely.

-Is any of the characters you write about, still alive?

-Jeannie.

Jeannie is still alive, and Jean Miner is still alive.

My baby sister Maureen and my baby sister Judy that I haven’t written about yet They're still alive, but it's very dangerous to write about people who are still alive.

[faint chuckling] For instance, my cousin Frankie, he's still alive.

He's a year older than I am.

And I wrote in one of my chapter books that our cousin Francis bought both of us bathing caps, at the shore.

And he said, I'm going to sue you.

I never wore a bathing cap.

[laughter] And I said, go ahead, sue me, I'll win, because I have home movies of both of us in our bathing caps-- [laughter] So when you write about real people, you have to be very careful to tell the truth -And make sure you've got a home movie -Yeah.

-to go along with it.

-Yeah.

-I think we've got time for a few more questions, we had one-- oh, we've got we'll get to all the questions-- -Okay, good, yeah I love answering questions.

-Tomie I just want to say thank you because my son, one of his he's an avid reader, and I really owe a lot of that to you, you were one of his first, authors that he really was excited about and I remember him reading The Art Lesson and with a flashlight under the covers, drawing on his sheets, because Tomie did that-- [laughter] -I'm sorry.

-And so I thank you, -You know, that, that's the kind of thing I love though when you're talking about your son, you know, getting interested in-- what more, what more does anyone need-- You know, money's nice.

I mean, it is it's really nice, you could pay your mortgage.

-I like money yeah.

-You can drive a car, you can, you know, go out to eat in a restaurant and buy good food to cook and stuff like that, and buy scarves, you know-- -Hats.

-No, no this was made for me.

I didn’t have to buy this.

-Handmade hat.

-Yeah handmade hat.

What more do you-- what more does anyone need out of life to know that somebody you don't even know, somewhere has picked up one of your pieces of work and has been moved by it and becomes either a better person or interested in reading or, interested in art.

That makes me feel really good and I know that I've chosen the right profession.

Yeah, it really does.

Yeah, -I think we've got a question in the back, and then we've got one question in the front, and so go ahead.

-I grew up hearing your stories, my mom would read them to me and I'm Irish Italian family so I always related well to them and now I'm actually a teacher so thank you on behalf of all the teachers, all the nice things you just said.

And I use your stories all the time.

I use Tom and, your stories about your family to read to the children before a writers workshop to try and give them inspiration.

-Oh, great.

-And so, and they love them because they can really relate to them.

So from your perspective, I just would love to know, when you sit down to write about one of the stories from your personal experience, like the, Peter Rabbit story there.

How do you get started?

You know, just to help teachers help children with writing their own stories, what's the process that you go through for those stories?

-I think it's great to get children to write about their own lives at a very early age, because it gives them value about who they are as people.

And we all have at least one story to tell.

At least one.

And the only thing we have to do is figure out how to tell that story so that we engage everyone to want to hear it.

And you do that par excellence.

You do, you do.

[applause] [applause] You know, Donald Hall said, Donald Hall said several years ago, that one of the things he thought was missing, we were talking about what is missing in schools today.

And I said, doodling and daydreaming.

[Rebecca chuckles] Because if I didn't doodle and I didn't daydream, how would I write or illustrate?

I wouldn't be able to because it's my practice.

And Donald said, children aren't aren't made to stand up and recite a poem anymore.

And you know that's true.

And that there was something really valuable in that.

You know, you all had to learn a stanza of a poem, and you had to stand up sometimes in front of the whole school.

Do you remember-- Our, our fourth grade class recited The Night Before Christmas -Sure.

-In front of the whole school.

And some of us had a line.

[laughter] -Bet you did, that was a good one too.

-It was a good one, yeah.

[laughter dwindles] Like dry leaves before the wild hurricane.

[laughter and applause] [applause] -Tomie, we're about, we're out of time, but I just there's one person down here who's very small with a question.

-Yes, here.

-So I think this will be, there we go.

-What are Strega Nona and Big Anthony doing now?

[laughter and applause] -Well, Big Anthony is getting into trouble.

And Strega Nona is just shaking her head and smiling and blowing you three kisses.

[smooching noise] [applause] Thank you everybody.

[applause continues] Thank you, Rebecca.

-Thank you, thank you.

[applause] -This has been a New Hampshire Public Television special presentation.

In partnership with the friends of the UNH library, with support from EBSCO publishing, providers of EBSCO Host Research Services world Headquarters in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

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♪♪