Alice Nizzy Nazzy

by Tony Johnston, Tomie dePaola (Illustrator)

Overview

In this whimsical picture book with illustrations by beloved award-winning illustrator Tomie dePaola, the classic Russian Baba Yaga witch story gets an American twist.

In Santa Fe, young Manuela finds herself in the cooking pot of Alice Nizzy Nazzy. Can she escape the hungry witch’s clutches? Manuela bravely tries to win her freedom unaware of one important rule: witches don’t like the taste of good children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665904292
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	587,933
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Tony Johnston is the award-winning author of more than 100 beloved children’s books. She lives with her family in San Marino, California, where she grew up.

Tomie dePaola (1934–2020) was the beloved author and/or illustrator of more than 270 books for young readers, including the children’s classic Strega Nona. He was the recipient of the Newbery Honor, Caldecott Honor, and the 2011 Children’s Literature Legacy Award for “significant and lasting contribution to children’s literature.” A native of Connecticut, Mr. dePaola studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and spent much of his life in New London, New Hampshire. Visit his work online at Tomie.com.

Editorial Reviews

11/25/2022

PreS-Gr 1—A child-eating witch straight out of Russian folklore comes to the American Southwest, thanks to Johnston and dePaola, who put her into an adobe hut and create a landscape that includes prickly pear. Readers beware: If you fall into Alice Nizzy Nazzy's cooking pot, remember that good children taste bad to witches. VERDICT This reissue is a gift for those who need their Baba Yaga to be a little bit closer and the landscape a little more familiar.—Kimberly Olson Fakih

School Library Journal

Together again, Johnston and dePaola team up to transport Baba Yaga, one of Russia's great folklore figures, to the American Southwest. Incarnated here as Alice Nizzy Nazzy, the child-eating witch lives in an adobe hut perched on "skinny roadrunner feet" and surrounded by a fence of prickly pear cactus. When Manuela wanders by in search of her lost sheep, she ends up in Alice's soup caldron. But quick thinking and personal merit ("Good children taste so sour!") save the day, the witch is routed, and sheep and shepherdess arrive home intact. Johnston's frothy tale is handsomely set off by dePaola's exuberant artwork, aglow with the colors of a Santa Fe sunset. DePaola clearly takes great glee in creating a witch of magnificent proportions: with her jalapeno-crowned coiffure, beady red eyes, scarlet fingernails, belt of silver conchos, and a horned lizard draped around her neck like a scarf, Alice Nizzy Nazzy is set to take her place in wicked-witch history. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Together again, Johnston and dePaola team up to transport Baba Yaga, one of Russia's great folklore figures, to the American Southwest. Incarnated here as Alice Nizzy Nazzy, the child-eating witch lives in an adobe hut perched on 'skinny roadrunner feet' and surrounded by a fence of prickly pear cactus. When Manuela wanders by in search of her lost sheep, she ends up in Alice's soup caldron. But quick thinking and personal merit ('Good children taste so sour!') save the day, the witch is routed, and sheep and shepherdess arrive home intact. Johnston's frothy tale is handsomely set off by dePaola's exuberant artwork, aglow with the colors of a Santa Fe sunset. DePaola clearly takes great glee in creating a witch of magnificent proportions: with her jalapeno-crowned coiffure, beady red eyes, scarlet fingernails, belt of silver conchos, and a horned lizard draped around her neck like a scarf, Alice Nizzy Nazzy is set to take her place in wicked-witch history.

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Johnston moves the Russian Baba Yaga tale to the American Southwest, and something gets lost in the translation. This witch is named Alice Nizzy Nazzy, and she's pretty nasty, though not really scary in true Baba Yaga fashion. It's the misfortune of a little girl named Manuela to meet up with her when Manuela's sheep run into Alice Nizzy Nazzy's yard. Although several times it looks as if Manuela is about to become Alice's dinner, events twist and turn until, finally, Manuela is freed--she's such a good girl that she tastes bad. Johnston's telling has a nice cadence to it, but the plot rambles, and the ending falls flat. The artwork is a little rougher in both design and execution than dePaola's usual style, but his witch is a wild one and accounts for most of the story's visual excitement. Get this for larger collections or where the southwestern setting has local appeal.

Ilene Cooper