Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. Illustrated by Simms Taback. Originally published in 1976 and then again in 1999 when Taback decided it could be better and he redid the book (Schwager, 1999).

     Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is a book about Joseph who had a coat. When this coat got old and worn he decided to make a jacket out of it, when this was old and worn he made a vest out and it and danced at his nephew's wedding. The book continues as each item gets old and worn until the jacket is now down to a button. He loses the button and then he has nothing left. He decides to make a book out of it. The story ends saying "Which shows you can always make something out of nothing."

• Are characters "outside the mainstream culture" depicted as individuals or as caricatures? The characters in this book are all Polish Jews who look similar to Joseph. We know it is in Poland because there is a letter on the floor in Joseph's room that was sent to him and the address is Yehupetz, Poland. There is no outside group in the book.

• Does their representation include significant specific cultural information? Or does it follow stereotypes? The book depicts Polish Jews. The clothing worn by many of the characters, could be stereotypical, as it is what you might expect Polish people to wear during that time period. The Jewish men have the traditional braids and yarmulkes. I think it could be portraying the stereotype that Jewish people are cheap, as he continues to reuse items over and over, and even when nothing is left he makes a book out of it. All of the clothes he owns have patches in them as well.

• What are the consequences of certain behaviors? What behaviors or traits are rewarded, and how? What behaviors are punished, and how? Joseph continues to make something new out of his coat when it is worn out. No matter what it looks like, instead of throwing it away, he makes something new. Even when it is gone he makes a book out of it.

• How is language used to create images of people of a particular group? How are artistic elements used to create those images? This book has wonderful artwork. It uses collages, watercolor, Gouache, pencil, and ink. Some of the men in the book are wearing a yarmulka (traditional Jewish cap), and in Joseph's house there is a menorah (a Jewish candlestick holder commonly used for Hanukkah) and a dreidel ( a jewish toy). On the ground there are newspapers with Yiddish writing on them. It is interesting because in Joseph's house the pictures on the wall are of real people and when he goes to visit his sister who lives in the city, the people in the apartments are all real people as well, but the characters in the book are cartoon people.

• Who has written this story? Who has illustrated it? Are they inside or outside the groups they are presenting? What are they in a position to know? What do they claim to know? The book was written and illustrated by Simms Taback. The characters in the book are Polish, according to an interview with Taback done by creativeparents.com. Simms is Polish and grew up in a neighborhood in the Bronx and Yiddish was his first language. Simm's parents were working class Jews. In the interview Taback says this book describes his childhood. He is inside the group he is presenting.

• What do this narrative and these pictures say about race? Class? Culture? Gender? Age? Resistance to the status quo? The pictures and the narrator show the people having fun, they go to the fair, they dance at weddings, they visit each other, and sing in the choir together it also shows them working in the field and in the yard, and working on making something new out of the old coat. It was interesting in the men's choir there was even little boys that were singing so they value all ages. There are also a lot of animals in the book, it seems most of the people owned some kind of farm animals. One lady has a goose walking around with her and a basket of eggs, another man is carrying a chicken. I think it shows a lot of positive things, but many things could be considered a stereotype.

• Analyze the illustrations for stereotypes.  What are people doing that may create or perpetuate a stereotype? The men wear yarmulkes and tall hats and all have beards or mustaches. The women wear scarves on their heads and wear bright colorful patterns. Many of the clothes are patched and worn out. The men have braids and scarves which some children may find funny. The people do all look similar. They have long noses that are red on the end, pink cheeks, their eyes all look similar, and the teeth are all the exact same. According to point 4 in Evaluating Children's Literature by Bliss, this would be stereotyping the characters.

• Analyze the storyline.  How are problems presented and resolved? I think this book has a wonderful storyline. When the coat is too worn out to wear, instead of throwing it away, Joseph makes a jacket out of it. I think this is great because we live in a world today where a lot of the kids I take care of and my nieces and nephews will say "let's go to the store and buy a new one" if I say something is broken. When there is a problem, Joseph fixes it by making something new.
• Would you recommend this book?  Why or why not? I would recommend this book. It is well-written and has simple phrases that are easy to read to children and could easily be memorized by children. I think it has wonderful illustrations and a good moral in a world where children want to throw things away because they can go to the store and buy a new one. I would be cautious if you have Jewish children in the classroom because it portrays the little boys with long braids and they could be seen as poor as the people all live in apartments, or a little house as Joseph lives in, which has very little possessions in it. This relates to number 9 in Evaluating Children's Literature. Children of this cultural background might be embarrassed if this was read in their classroom. I had a hard time finding anything negative about this book. The reviews were positive and websites like pbskids.org and scholastic.com had lots of activities and suggestions for using it in the classroom. Overall I think it is a wonderful book. Since it was written by a man who was Polish and spoke Yiddish. He was writing about one of his favorite songs as a child. It would be fun to learn this song in the classroom and you could make a few activities out of it. Like giving the children a brown paper bag or some fabric and having them make something that they want to make. It would be fun to see all the things they come up with, using the same materials.

                                            

Laura Thompson

References: Bliss, K. Evaluating children's literature.

Dr. Schwager, I. (1999). Interview with the Year 2000 Caldecott Gold Medal Winner. Retrieved from  

http://www.creativeparents.com/simmsinterv.html

Taback, S. (1999). Joseph had a little overcoat. New York, New York: Penguin Group.

Images from pbskids.org