Book Review: "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback

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

"Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback was actually inspired by an old Yiddish folk song called "I Had a Little Overcoat". This book starts off with Joseph in his overcoat, but through out the story his coat gets old and tattered so he makes a jacket out of it and when that gets ruined he makes a vest and so on and so on until he ends up with a small button, which he ends up losing and inspired to turn this overcoat's story into a book. In each of his new creations from this overcoat Joseph attends different events and does different things such as visiting his married sister in the city and drinking hot tea with lemon. Every time Joseph had to make his worn out overcoat into a new item there was a cut out on the page giving the reader a clue of what he was going to make his clothing into.

I thought this book was very cute and great for young readers. Although it is not identifiable as Jewish just by reading the text on the pages, but looking at the illustrations it is blatantly a piece of Jewish literature. Through out the book there are little things scattered in the back round of the pages. For example, on page 4 there is a newspaper on the ground that has its title written in Hebrew and has a story on the cover about a Rabbi. Through out the pages most of the characters are wearing Jewish garb and are pictures of historical Jewish figures. Also through out the book Joseph has letters in his house from Poland. There are also other newspapers scattered through out with Yiddish and with titles about Jewish people and events, such as "Fiddler on the Roof". Not only is this a very good and creative book, but also has a message the author was trying to convey, which is "you can always make something out of nothing." Simms Taback is an insider author and with this book won The Caldecott Medal! This book sheds positive light on Jewish literature and even though is not out right informing people on the Jewish religion through words it still does through the pictures and images on the pages. I also thought it was great that he included a note to the readers explaining why he wrote this book and also gave the folk song that inspired this fun book.