Self-Sacrifice - To give up something you would like for even one individual or the benefit of many.

Tomie dePaola’s birthday is on September 15th.

Thomas Anthony dePaola was born in Meriden, Connecticut. He loved books, and his mother read to him every day. Tomie also loved to draw and dance. When he was 4 years old he announced to his family that he would someday write stories and draw pictures for books. On his first day of kindergarten he asked his teacher when they would learn to read, and when she said in first grade, he declared, “Fine! I’ll be back next year.”

To get a library card in his town, his teacher had to sign a blue card verifying he could read. Tomie brought home a book from school and asked members of his family what each word was until he had learned every word in the book. Tomie earned his library card. “Mother Goose rhymes contain all of the sounds and combination of sounds that we use in the English language. And, of course, the sooner children hear all those combinations and even try to say them themselves, that’s how they learn.” When reading a picture book to a class, he suggests read it slower so the children can also see what is going on in the illustrations.

Tomie has illustrated nearly 250 books published in fifteen different countries, and had written the stories for over 100 of those books. He has won numerous awards, and receives more than 100,000 fan letters each year.

Tomie lives in New Hampshire with his four dogs, and has a studio in a large, renovated 200-year-old barn.