“The Clown of God” is an Italian folktale retold by Tomie dePaola, famous for his “Strega Nona” books. The story did keep their attention and the kids said that they thought it was a 3 or 4 star story with only my nephew saying it was only 2 stars just to be a prankster. The kids thought this was a fun story to read together. This is a famous old French legend that was part of the storyteller tradition. The story is set at the beginning of the Renaissance. He performs for the statue as his heart moves him too and then you need to read the ending for yourself. He ends up homeless once more and finds his way to a monastery with a Madonna and child where the child is grumpy and serious looking. When he is an old man, everyone has seen him and they are no longer amazed by him. He learns a new act and spends his life going about entertaining people all over the land. An orphan can juggle and he finds a traveling show to join and learn from. The story is a tiny bit long, but it's good. We set it up like a reading time at the library where I read a page and showed them the pictures. So, it was fun reading this to not only my niece and nephew, but other kids of my cousins. This also has a religious theme to it so this is like the perfect story for him. He loves clowns and he was also a minister at a big church in North Carolina, so I know that they got this book when my cousin was young because he loves clowns.

I found this book at my Uncle's house during our family reunion.

Tomie depaola the clown of god