Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback

 

Title: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat 

Genre: Fiction 

Author and Illustrator: Simms Taback 

Major Awards: Caldecott Medal 

Age group: 3 to 7 years old 

 

Summary: 

This picture book by Simms Taback is about Joseph who has a very old coat that is very worn out. He decides to make it into different pieces of clothing as it keeps wearing out. At first, he made jacket, then a vest, then a scarf, then a necktie, then a handkerchief, and then finally a button. At the end of the story, he loses the button therefore he has nothing else to make, so he makes a story about the coat. 

Evaluation: 

Appropriate grade levels would be Preschool to 2^nd grade. 

I loved the way Simms Taback created little cut outs all throughout the pages to show what Joseph was making next. I would use this book in my classroom for that reason because it can keep the students engaged by them trying to guess what he is making next. An activity that we can create with this book is maybe having my students creating their own coat and having them make it however they wanted to.