Strega Nona turns 50 — and her art lives in Minneapolis

In her office overlooking the Mississippi River, Lisa Von Drasek pulls one watercolor painting after another out of a big flat box.

The pastel scenes feature blue pumpkins and blue rolling hills, a plump rabbit, lots of spaghetti and a roly-poly grandmother figure with her signature headscarf, apron and cauldron.

It’s Strega Nona, a beloved witch from children’s literature. • Creating and celebratingA child’s world

“This is pen and ink and watercolor and a little pencil crayon. You see? Look at her dancing,” says Von Drasek, the curator of the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature at the University of Minnesota.

The watercolors are the original illustrations for the children’s picture book about the witch, “Strega Nona, An Old Tale,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary this ye