Tomie dePaola, one of American best known children's book author/illustrators, described his craft to students from the School of Fine Arts and the University Honors Program at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center last week.

He also gave a talk to 150 eight-year-old students from the Willington, Mansfield, Coventry, and Windham schools.

dePaola is the author/illustrator of more than 200 books and there are more than 5 million copies of his books in print. His best known character is Strega Nona. His book Strega Nona was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1976.

dePaola's visit was timed to coincide with a new exhibit at the Dodd Center, "Down Under and Over Here," a display of children's book illustrations from Australia and America, which includes some of dePaola's work.

The Northeast Children's Literature Collections of more than 14,000 classic and modern chidlren's books and a growing archive of orgininal art and manuscript materials from contemporary authors and illustrators are a component of the Archives and Special Collections Unit of the University Libraries located in the Dodd Center.

The collections include works by Barbara Cooney, Leonard Everett Fisher, Nonny Hogrogian, Wendell Minor, and Cyndy Szekeres.