Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by Tomie de Paola

De Paola, Tomie. Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs. New York: Putnam Juvenile, 1975.

A sad but truthful story lies within this children’s book. A little boy named Tommy has a Nana that lives upstairs and a Nana the lives downstairs. One day, Nana upstairs passes away and is gone forever and Tommy has to deal with the death of his Nana. At the end of the story we, the readers, can understand that Nana’s spirit is in a shooting star that Tommy sees.

Tomie De Paola is indeed an author who is otherwise informed on this topic. What lead me to this assumption are the words that are written within this children’s book. De Paola talked about Nana upstairs needing to be tied to a chair so that she didn’t fall out; this is a sign of ageism. We see throughout the book that Nana upstairs needed help with things like eating, sitting up straight, and putting her hair up; all of this leads de Paola to otherwise informed because he is very detailed about his words when is comes to Nana upstairs; the illustrations to them justice as well.

The pictures in this book are fantastic. They are very simple and they get to the point of the story. This is not a book in which I would say is lacking details in the drawings. I found it interesting and something I liked very much about this book is that it is written and illustrated by de Paola. I feel like you don’t see very many writers who are illustrators as well. I think this helps the story stand out because Tomie knows the exact pictures that he wants to use for each page instead of someone else doing it. His pictures consist of pencil drawings in black, pink, white, and tan. There are no other colors that accentuate these illustrations, just simple pencil drawings. The front cover of this book is the best picture because it shows the Nana that lives upstairs and down. It is a very informative pictures in which illustrates the three main characters in the story.

The one thing that stood out to me in this book were the stereotypes that Crawford illustrates in her article. “Stereotypes include rocking chair-bound women who frequently wear aprons, sport gray buns, and engage only in traditional experiences such as cooking, baking, or sewing (Crawford 1-2).” In Nana Upstairs and Nana downstairs, Nana downstairs is always in an apron. This is a common stereotypes that people have when they think of grandparents or the elderly but by teaching and discussing how these stereotypes are not necessarily true, children can rid these stereotypes.

I think this is a very touching story in which teaches children how to deal with the death of a loved one from a children’s perspective. Through out this book we see how both of the Nana’s are portrayed in the light of a children’s story. Nana downstairs can take care of herself and takes care of Nana upstairs. This is a very uplifting story in which is very open-ended for any interpretations that may arise.

(This book doesn’t have page numbers)