My son and I loved de Paola’s books and had the privilege of meeting him once.  I will always treasure his signature next to his illustration of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.  He looked at me at the book signing and said, “oh, you know this painting?” and I smiled and nodded. RIP.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/tomie-depaola-creator-of-gently-humorous-picture-books-dies-at-85/2020/03/30/156e6992-72db-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html