The unique and enduring illustrative art of Tomie DePaola

Tomie DePaola was one of the most prolific and influential children’s authors and illustrators who ever lived. He wrote and/or illustrated more than 270 books, including Caldecott Honor and Newbery Honor winners. He was also given the Children’s Literature Legacy Award (which was called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award until June 2018) for “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children”, and many more accolades over the course of his long career. And an astounding 25 million copies of his books have been sold since his first work was published in the mid-1960s.

The cultural impact of DePaola’s books is significant and enduring. His signature art style is imprinted on the memories of millions of people; fond memories of parents or grandparents reading to them as kids, or their first forays into reading for themselves. The simple (not simplistic), childlike (not childish) art, and storytelling belie the complicated figure behind them.

DePaola died on March 30, 2020, at the age of 85. His legacy is one of incredible productivity, including the worldwide mega hit Strega Nona. DePaola was raised Catholic, and even entered a Benedictine monastery at a young age (he discerned after six months that he was not called to monastic life). He left the Church and much later in life revealed that he was homosexual, but we can see from the corpus of his work that he always maintained Catholic sensibilities and looked at the world through that Catholic lens.

He wrote many books on the lives of the saints and other Catholic themes. In recent years, Ignatius Press, in collaboration with Magnificat, has produced beautiful editions of several of his books.

Since 2020, Ignatius Press has published reprints of several of dePaola’s books. They range from lives of the saints—Brother Francis of Assisi and Mary, the Mother of Jesus—to Old Testament figures—Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, and Queen Esther. And, most recently, a folk tale of sorts, titled Petook, about a rooster who met Jesus during his earthly life; The Little Friar Who Flew, which is about St. Joseph of Cupertino; and Christopher, the Holy Giant, about the legend of a giant who carried the Christ Child.

When dePaola died, there was a flood of tributes from every corner of the media landscape. His work was appreciated by people from all walks of life; it reached beyond political divisions, race, culture, creed, and economic status.

Ignatius Press regularly publishes children’s books in collaboration with the publisher Magnificat. Vivian Dudro is senior editor at Ignatius Press, and one of her responsibilities is these Ignatius Press-Magnificat joint publications. When she and others at Ignatius Press realized many of dePaola’s books were out of print, they looked into the possibility of doing reprints.

Dudro’s role as editor was relatively hands-off as the books had already been published, of course, and did not need much help. “I did some nipping and tucking on the content here and there,” she said. This work started before DePaola’s passing, and he approved all the changes that were made.

“His stories about the saints reveal a man who greatly admired those who tried to follow Jesus by giving up everything to God,” Dudro observed. The attentive reader can see much below the surface of these books; more than folk tales, one can sense a recognition of sanctity and a deep admiration for the figures in these stories, who, of course, were real people we can look up to and imitate.

Petook is a bit different from the other DePaola works Ignatius Press has now printed. Written by Caryll Houselander (1901-54), the twentieth century British writer, artist, counselor, and mystic, this is a folk tale which DePaola illustrated. The story of a rooster that meets Jesus Christ was admired by DePaola, which “speaks volumes to me about the man’s understanding of redemptive suffering in the life of both the Christian and the artist,” Dudro said.

This can also be seen in dePaola’s Clown of God, published in 1978, which is a retelling of a popular medieval legend about a juggler who performs before a statue of the Christ Child on Christmas Day. This was the first DePaola book Dudro ever read, and was the start of a lifelong love for the artist and his work.

John Herreid, Catalogue Manager at Ignatius Press, who also does a great deal of book cover designs and is an artist in his own right, said that dePaola’s work is deceptively simple, which is the case with many of the most effective illustrators. “I say ‘deceptive’ because I know how hard it is to get that kind of consistency in your art!” Herreid said.

Sally Thomas, writing in First Things, compared dePaola’s work to iconography, in that the elements that make each character unique are on full display, but his drawing style allows for enough simplicity that even children can easily identify with the person depicted in the illustration. Herreid compared this also to the work of Hergé, the illustrator who created Tintin. Hergé simplified faces down to the essential elements, he said, and dePaola’s take on this is easy to recognize once one is familiar with his work.

DePaola’s artwork is “kind of an ideal marriage of style and content,” Herreid said. In this way, his style is very well-suited to the tales of Biblical figures and saints, in a similar way to iconography, or medieval illuminated manuscripts.

This is one way that dePaola’s profoundly Catholic sensibilities can be seen in his work. Herreid said even in dePaola’s work that is not explicitly Catholic, it is apparent how deeply embedded his faith is in his experience and worldview. “Catholic cultural traditions involving food, visual arts, and music are all things he encountered as a child in an Italian immigrant community—and these all pop up in his work,” he said. “It’s something that inspires me in how I raise my own children, to make sure these sorts of rich sensory experiences are in place alongside any teaching of the Faith.”

DePaola was interested in contemporary liturgical art ever since he was in art school. He recognized that most contemporary Church architecture and art was sentimental and aesthetically disappointing. He said that when comparing modern churches to the pre-Renaissance churches around the world, one could see that the spirituality had gone out of the architecture and artwork. This was a tragedy, a cultural poverty; and one can see in his own art and storytelling that he yearned for this beauty in life.

Tomie DePaola is a singular figure in the world of children’s books, and a bit of an enigma. He was clearly a man of deep faith, a gifted storyteller, and artist who utilized those gifts given him by God. And the fruits of some of his labors can now be seen freshly once again.