Joseph Had A Little Overcoat (Traditional)

Taback, Simms. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. New York: Viking, 1999. ISBN 0670878553

Plot Summary
A Jewish man named Joseph wears out his overcoat, but he does not get rid of it. Instead, Joseph reuses what he can to create useful clothing items. The process repeats with Joseph never wasting what is worn, but instead creating wonderful new, albeit shrinking, items of clothing. When finally there is no cloth left to reuse, Joseph does not lose his innovative spirit- he creates something out of nothing!

Critical Analysis
Joseph shows innovation in this waste-not want not tale retold by Taback. The intricate illustrations become critical to Taback’s take on a traditional Yiddish folk song as the book’s words are so few in number. The detail that is lacking in the simple, yet comfortably repetitive story line allows for the intricate pages of art to become the main focus.
    Each page details Joseph’s creation or use of his ever smaller “overcoat” in front of an always curious crowd of adults or animals. Cutouts concretely illustrate to younger readers the reuse of the same fabric in each new object. The many mediums (including pencil, ink, watercolor, gouache, and collage) allow the reader to repeatedly study the art, each time with new insight and revelation. A strong sense of Jewish culture is demonstrated in the themes of working hard and wasting little as well as through the history lesson portrayed via the many Jewish sayings, customs, objects, plays, and people represented in the illustrations. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is a book destined to be well loved, reread, and carefully studied by children.

Awards and Review Excerpts
2000 Caldecott Honor
Publishers Weekly- “effective repetition and an abundance of visual humor”
School Library Journal- “bursting at the seams with ingenuity”
The Horn Book v.76- “clever, visually engrossing, poignant”

Connections
*Use this book to teach sequencing skills with younger children.
*After reading this book, let students cut pictures from magazines to incorporate into their own artwork.
*Another relevant art activity would be to create art out of “nothing”- trash!
*Use this book as a follow up to a unit of study on Jewish culture or after a unity of study on the 3 Rs (Reduce/Reuse/Recycle).
*Read other traditional Yiddish Folktales, including...
Schwartz, Howard. Gathering sparks. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2010. ISBN 1596432802
Zemach, Margot. It could always be worse : a Yiddish folk tale. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
     1990. ISBN0374436363
Waldman, Debby. A sack full of feathers. Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers, 2006. ISBN1551438631