Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

      Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
      Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
      Author(s) Simms Taback
      Illustrator Simms Taback
      Country United States
      Genre(s) Children's picture book
      Publisher Viking Press
      Publication date 1999
      ISBN 978-0-670-87855-0
      OCLC Number 40159006
      Dewey Decimal 398.2 E 21
      LC Classification PZ7.T1115 Jo 1999

      Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is the title of a 1999 book by Simms Taback that won the 2000 Caldecott Medal.[1][2] The main character is Joseph, a 40-something Jewish farmer, who has a little striped overcoat. When it is old, Joseph makes it into a little jacket and so on until he makes it into a button. Then Joseph loses the button and makes a story out of it. The moral of the story is "you can always make something out of nothing."

      The story has die-cut illustrations consisting of watercolor and collage.[3] Readers of the story say that Joseph greatly resembles Simms Taback.[4]

      Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is based on the Yiddish song I Had a Little Overcoat.[3][5] Barbara Kiefer, chair of the Caldecott Award Committee, commented, "Vibrant rich colors, playful details, and skillfully-placed die cuts contribute to the books raucous merriment that takes this Yiddish folk song far beyond the simple words."[1]

      The story is read on the children’s show Between the Lions.[6]

      Last modified on 16 March 2013, at 23:21