Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Bibliography

Taback, Simms. 1999. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. New York, NY: Penguin Putnum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0670878553

Plot Summary

When the resourceful Joseph’s overcoat becomes worn and tattered he makes a jacket out of it. The pattern of wear followed by reuse continues until Joseph turns his former overcoat into a button. When the button is lost Joseph concedes that you can’t make something out of nothing, so he decides to write a story about it!

Critical Analysis

Illustrated using watercolor, ink, gouache, pencil, collage, and clever cut-outs, this Caldecott Award-winning book is a feast for the eyes. The character Joseph is first presented wearing the overcoat, and the opposing page has a cut-out fashioned so that when the readers turns the page, the cut-out shape of a jacket reveals the same “material” from the previous overcoat. This continues with the vest, scarf, necktie, handkerchief, and finally the button.

The story is predictable with a very likable main character. The colors on the page are beautiful and bright. This is a very engaging story to read to children of all ages.

Review Excerpts

Amazon.com
When Joseph's favorite overcoat gets old and worn, he makes a jacket out of it. When the jacket is more patches than jacket, Joseph turns it into a vest. When the vest's number is up, Joseph makes a scarf. This thrifty industry continues until there's nothing left of the original garment. But clever Joseph manages to make something out of nothing! (And that's the foreshadowed moral of the story.)

In today's throwaway world, Joseph's old-fashioned frugality is a welcome change. Based on a Yiddish song from Simms Taback's youth (lyrics and music reproduced on the last page), the book is filled with rhythms and arresting colors that will delight every reader. As more and more holes appear in Joseph's coat, die-cut holes appear on the pages, hinting at each next manifestation. The illustrations are striking, created with gouache, watercolor, collage, pencil, and ink. Every inch of space is crammed with fanciful, funny details, such as the headline on a discarded newspaper: "Fiddler on Roof Falls off Roof." Taback, esteemed creator of the Caldecott Honor-winning There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and the classic Too Much Noise, has produced a picture book that is as well turned out as its dapper hero.

From Publishers Weekly
As in his Caldecott Honor book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, 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. A flip of the page allows children to peek through to subsequent spreads as Joseph's tailoring produces items of decreasing size. The author puts a droll spin on his narrative when Joseph loses the last remnant of the coatAa buttonAand decides to make a book about it. "Which shows... you can always make something out of nothing," writes Taback, who wryly slips himself into his story by depicting Joseph creating a dummy for the book that readers are holding. Still, it's the bustling mixed-media artwork, highlighted by the strategically placed die-cuts, that steals the show. Taback works into his folk art a menagerie of wide-eyed animals witnessing the overcoat's transformation, miniature photographs superimposed on paintings and some clever asides reproduced in small print (a wall hanging declares, "Better to have an ugly patch than a beautiful hole"; a newspaper headline announces, "Fiddler on Roof Falls off Roof"). With its effective repetition and an abundance of visual humor, this is tailor-made for reading aloud. All ages. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Connections

Taback, Sims. 1997. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Viking Juvenile. 0670869392

Taback, Sims. 2004. This is the House that Jack Built. Puffin Press. 0142402001

Taback, Sims. 2005. Kibitzers and Fools. Viking Juvenile. 0670059552