Tomie dePaola
Recognized in the Creative Minds Montessori 2026 Teacher’s Choice list.
Tomie dePaola is one of roughly one hundred authors whose work was selected by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list — 120 books chosen across four reading stages, from first lap-reads to first chapter books. The selected book was chosen for how precisely it meets children at a real developmental moment. This recognition cannot be bought: no author or publisher paid to appear on our lists, and we take no commission on any book sale.
About Tomie dePaola
Tomie dePaola (1934–2020) published over 270 books — Strega Nona earned a Caldecott Honor, and his 26 Fairmount Avenue memoirs a Newbery Honor — in a folk-art style as comforting as the Irish-Italian family stories he told.
DePaola announced at age four that he would write and draw books, and famously refused to learn cursive in school on the grounds that artists print; he kept that promise and that handwriting his whole career.
Also by this author: Strega Nona · The Art Lesson · 26 Fairmount Avenue
Official legacy site: www.tomie.com
Selected for the 2026 Teacher’s Choice list
Part of The Best Children’s Books by Age, chosen by the teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX.