JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT by Simms Taback

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Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is award winning author-illustrator Simms Taback’s adaptation of an old Yiddish folk song. Taback was inspired by “I Had a Little Overcoat” and reprints this childhood favorite tune at the end of his illustrated version. He weaves a delightfully simple story about a traditional Jewish man whose overcoat wears out, so he sews it into a jacket. The jacket gets frayed, so he makes himself a vest, and so on, until he is left with a mere button, which gets lost. Ever practical, he writes a book about it, the moral being that "you can always make something out of nothing." Joseph's surroundings are not only strewn with vibrant knickknacks, but also wise Jewish sayings and witty jokes.

Each page in this book is a collage of color—a clutter of buttons, remnants, and patterns all on a contrasting dark background. Taback’s illustrations are extremely creative, especially the die-cut format of the story, where the cut out shape reveals the new garment that Joseph stitched from the ragged clothing item on the preceding page. Booklist lauds, "Cut outs emphasize the use and reuse of the material and add to the general sense of fun." The artistic combination of drawings, photographs, and sayings constructs a charming patchwork of love and life lessons. 

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 2000. Taback previously won a Caldecott Honor Medal for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, featuring a similar innovative die-cut format. 

This notable picture book can be used to create a variety of extension activities for varying age groups. As a flannel story, preschoolers can visualize the concepts of big and little or old and new through assembling different cut-out clothing pieces. In a craft project using worn out t-shirts, tweens and teens can appreciate how the current trend of “upcycling” old items into something useful is not an entirely new idea.

Books in Print. TWU Library. Accessed September 25, 2013. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125