Tomie dePaola has done an excellent job at both illustrating and writing this book about the true meaning of spreading happiness. “The Clown of God” is a truly touching story that children will love for many years. This book is about how a young boy named Giovanni becomes a famous juggler all around Italy while learning the true meaning of spreading happiness around the world.

“The Clown of God” is an Italian folktale retold by Tomie dePaola, famous for his “Strega Nona” books. The story did keep their attention and the kids said that they thought it was a 3 or 4 star story with only my nephew saying it was only 2 stars just to be a prankster. The kids thought this was a fun story to read together. This is a famous old French legend that was part of the storyteller tradition. The story is set at the beginning of the Renaissance. He performs for the statue as his heart moves him too and then you need to read the ending for yourself. He ends up homeless once more and finds his way to a monastery with a Madonna and child where the child is grumpy and serious looking. When he is an old man, everyone has seen him and they are no longer amazed by him. He learns a new act and spends his life going about entertaining people all over the land. An orphan can juggle and he finds a traveling show to join and learn from. The story is a tiny bit long, but it's good. We set it up like a reading time at the library where I read a page and showed them the pictures. So, it was fun reading this to not only my niece and nephew, but other kids of my cousins. This also has a religious theme to it so this is like the perfect story for him.

He loves clowns and he was also a minister at a big church in North Carolina, so I know that they got this book when my cousin was young because he loves clowns. Tomie was God’s clown and he gave God everything he had– to our great benefit, that came in the form of beautiful stories and illustrations.I found this book at my Uncle's house during our family reunion. Simcha Fisher has written about it and I tear up when I read the book. As I reflect on the joy and the beauty that Tomie created and gave to all of us, this is what I think of. Tomie also wrote a beautiful story called The Clown of God about giving that one thing you have to God. That is but one good memory in a sea of many I have with the works of Tomie dePaola.

Johanna was a notoriously hard grader and I was expecting to be picked apart. The day of, I was the first to present and did as perfectly as I could hope.

I practiced telling this story for weeks– perfecting my pauses and inflections and voice. Strega Nona was a story I knew very well and I related it to reconciliation. The assignment was to pick a short story that could relate to an aspect of the Faith and tell it to the class without much movement or flamboyancy. I once retold the story of Strega Nona in a catechetics class at Franciscan University with Sr.

The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola