“The Clown of God” by Tomie dePaola

Picture book author/artist Tomie dePaola is unmatched in his wide-ranging ability through his picture books, to tap into the heart of a child.

Winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award ( while it may indeed be referred to as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, since 2018, I will have to demur here ), given by the American Library Association, the Regina Medal, a Caldecott Honor designation, a Newbery Honor designation, and so many other professional and private accolades, that he is well-beloved and deservedly so, in the children’s book community.

Tomie consistently is able to hold both the heart and hand of a child in thrall through his picture book narratives, some of which are based on his own experiences, some that stem from legends or lives of saints and faith-based, and still others that are folk tales, such as the famous “Strega Nona” of pasta pot fame.

Tomie passed away on March 30th of 2020.

This is the second Christmas that he is not with us…and yet, in some sense, he is and always will be, through the lives and legacies of the myriad myths and stories happening within the Christmas season that he brought forth to young readers.

He was unabashed in his embrace of the spiritual, even in a very secular world and he was adroitly able to balance the two, giving significance to both.

He knew that children were hungry for the stories of heroes and heroines that just may happened to have been holy people and felt that children needed to hear their stories, too.

If by some strange twist of literary picture book loss, his books have escaped your radar for young readers, I urge you, during this gift-giving time of the year, to buy one of his many titles for a child.
His stories are wide ranging in interest and intensity, but it is always at Christmas that my mind wanders back to a wondrous title of his, published in 1978, called “The Clown of God”. Here is but one review of the book:

“In this retelling of the old French legend, a juggler offers to the Christ Child the only Christmas gift he has.The full-color pictures with subtle tonal modulations are an integral part of the design of the luminous pages full of movement and vitality. The Italianate aspects of the setting are beautifully realized.”–The Horn Book

I just ordered a copy of this legend by Anatole France called “Our Lady’s Juggler” on which “The Clown Of God” may be based.

In Tomie dePaola’s poignant and heart-tugging version, the young traveling Italian juggler named Giovanni is a young apprentice, traveling with a touring circus. He is on the very edge of fame and prominence in the world of entertainment.

He becomes its star with his famous act called the “Sun in the Heavens” which features as its finale, a gleaming golden ball. He tosses this final ball higher and higher amidst the jumble of juggled orbs. His fame is renowned.

Time passes, and fame with it. An aging Giovanni can no longer perform at the peak level of his youth…and he is mocked cruelly by his former adoring crowds.

On a blustery cold winter’s eve in the Christmas season, he travels back to his home.. old, tired and alone.

He hears music from the church as the people process in pageantry to give the Newborn King rich gifts. Giovanni has nothing to give…except himself and his talent.

In a vacant church, he tries to reenact the “Sun in the Heavens,” his most well-known and difficult juggling feat. He offers it in the deserted church, after the crowds have departed, in front of a statue of the Infant King in his mother’s arms.

Though ragged and aged, he succeeds, as he has not managed to do for years, with both the unexpected expertise of his youth briefly returning, with an unbridled happiness.

What happens next, transmits to the reader emotions of joy, sorrow and wonder, and all within mere moments of one another….and the unforgettable miracle appears that brings Tomie dePaola’s “The Clown of God”  to an emotional and miraculous close.

My forty-something daughter still recalls the impact of this picture book with tears, having read it as a child. And this is a book she read more than thirty years ago. Now, that is a picture book!

Giovanni provides to the Newborn King, the most perfect of selfless gifts; richer than all the ones that have processed to the altar before him in splendor and pomp.

It is the gift of self. That gift is always unmatched and finds its reward in the form of a smiling miracle.

Please share with a young reader, this glorious version of “Our Lady’s Juggler,” re-imagined in picture book version by Tomie dePaola, in his Italian setting, and called “The Clown of God.” 

It is worth sharing this Christmas as a gift, or any time, with young readers that you may know.

Heck, even I fell in love with the arc of this single life and the pageantry of its depiction…in all its humanity.

It is memorable and a reminder that love can make miracles happen even in a world where the self holds sway.

Tomie gave the gift of self in each of some 270 books that he illustrated, wrote or both. He is there in every one of their pages.

His presence looms large in “The Clown of God” and maybe it is why at this time of year, I read it over and over.

Happy Christmas, Tomie! I know that you are smiling even now, just as surely as Giovanni the juggler did on Christmas Eve centuries ago.

And Jesus and Mary are smiling at you as well.