![]() The whole experience of knowing Nana Upstairs is made a blessing to us just as it was for young Tomie, and I am amazed by how perfectly he is able to make it all come so vividly alive.Īs the hands of time erode the older hierarchy of Tommy's family-including his two Nanas-the story becomes very poignantly emotional, defying the spare number of words to gracefully weave itself around the reader's heart. The anecdote about Nana Upstairs having to be tied to a chair to keep from falling out and Tommy asking Nana Downstairs to tie him in a chair, too, is one of the best things that I have ever read. This book steps so delicately upon the walkway of Tomie's youth that its construction is equal to that of the magnificent spiderweb spun by nature's surest architect. ![]() I feel as if I know Tom, and Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, and all the rest of Tomie's wonderful family as well as if they were my kin, too, and that is truly a special feeling that is hard to fully put into words. ![]() ![]() Speaking for myself in all sincerity, his picture-book family histories have welcomed me into the life he has led as warmly as if I were a part of the family. There is nothing in literature like the books that Tomie dePaola has written about his family when he was growing up. ![]()
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