Episode 19 - Don’t Mess With The Pasta Magic! (Strega Nona and The Magicians of Caprona)

Spaghetti, magic and Italian cities abound in this episode! We kick off the discussion with the treasure that is Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola. Lovely, naive, almost tapestry-like illustrations and a simple folk tale.

 

And then we indulge in another Diana Wynne Jones: The Magicians of Caprona! In this second book of the Chrestomanci series we visit a world where song is magic, and magic is song. Romeo and Juliet influences are thick in the air; there is, as usual with Diana Wynne Jones, a war just over the horizon. And, if you weren't sold yet, some brilliant cat characters the likes of which we haven't seen since The Amazing Maurice.

 

We reference our Shooting Stars episode about Howl's Moving Castle too, which you can find here.

 

You can see and purchase all the books we've ever discussed at our bookshop dot org shopfront here.

 

Transcripts are available on our website here.

 

Our intro music, What A Wonderful Day, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com