Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Sprightly Jewish dance music introduces this charming production of Simms Taback's Caldecott-winning book. Rob Reiner gives the simple text a perfect narration: enthusiastic, yet not too fast, with just the tiniest hint of a Jewish European accent. An undercurrent of sounds supporting the pictures and the text runs undistractingly beneath Reiner's voice. We hear dance music when Joseph goes to a wedding, choral music when he sings in a chorus, and the sound of him blowing his nose when he makes a handkerchief! The second side of the tape features identical narration without the page-turn signals. A captivating winner. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

October 4, 1999
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 coat--a button--and 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.

Author Simms Taback reads the text of his popular picture book, one that weaves the tale about a piece of fabric that follows a man, first as his overcoat, then his coat, his vest, his scarf, and eventually as it wears away, Joseph has nothing left of his overcoat but the story to tell. With amusing sound effects, musical accompaniment, and Taback's playful reading, this is a listening delight. The program is repeated on both sides of the cassette, once with page-turning cues. At the end of the story, Taback sings the Yiddish folk song that is the basis for the story. Together with the print version, JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT is a worthy addition to any children's library, public or private. S.E.S. 2002 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine