By: Simms Taback
Published by: The Penguin Group, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-87855-3
Plot Summary
Joseph has an overcoat but it is old and worn he makes a jacket out of it and wears it to the fair. After a time, it continues to get old and worn and he makes a vest, a scarf, and other items out of it, the garments getting smaller and smaller over time. He wears or uses each one for something different. The moral at the end of the story teaches us that you can always make something out of nothing.
Critical Analysis
Taback modeled this book after an old Yiddish song he knew as a child. It is a type of cumulative tale where the action continually repeats itself (the garment becomes worn and Joseph fashions it into something smaller). Children may think all is lost, literally, when the last of the overcoat, a small button, is lost by the main character. But Joseph triumphs by making the book that the reader is now holding, thus proving the lesson at the end of the book, you can always make something from nothing.
The tale is simple and repetitive and allows the illustrations to really shine. The level of detail in the pictures is amazing and you can read it several times and discover something new upon each re-reading. The cut-outs are perfectly hidden in the pages so as not to spoil the next iteration of the coat. The colors used are bright and bold and give a warm and cozy feeling to the book.
The reader is able to tell just how special the coat is to Joseph based on the places he chooses to wear it. Some of them include his nephew's wedding, visiting his sister and singing in the men's chorus. This helps one to understand how sad Joesph must have been when he lost the button, the last part of the coat that he had remaining. The author then inserts himself into the story by showing Joseph creating the book that the reader is now holding in their hand.
The illustration that shows Joseph making the book includes animals that have been shown previously in other pictures throughout the book. This might be because Joseph is using them as models to draw the illustrations in the book or because they are showing an interest in what he is making since they have been there throughout his life as he wore the coat.
The reader is able to tell just how special the coat is to Joseph based on the places he chooses to wear it. Some of them include his nephew's wedding, visiting his sister and singing in the men's chorus. This helps one to understand how sad Joesph must have been when he lost the button, the last part of the coat that he had remaining. The author then inserts himself into the story by showing Joseph creating the book that the reader is now holding in their hand.
The illustration that shows Joseph making the book includes animals that have been shown previously in other pictures throughout the book. This might be because Joseph is using them as models to draw the illustrations in the book or because they are showing an interest in what he is making since they have been there throughout his life as he wore the coat.
Awards Won
National Jewish Book Award for Children's Picture Book, 1999
Caldecott Medal, 2000
Review Excerpt
From Publisher's Weekly, published October 4, 1999
“Taback's inventive use of die-cut pages shows off his signature artwork, here newly created for his 1977 adaptation of a Yiddish folk song. This diverting, sequential story unravels as swiftly as the threads of Joseph's well-loved, patch-covered plaid coat. ”
Connections
Use this book and Taback's unique style of die-cut pages to introduce an art project to students. Have them create a two-layered picture, with the top page having cutouts in it to reveal part of the bottom page.
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