Joseph Had a Little Overcoat: Caldecott Medal Award Winner

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, written and illustrated by Simms Taback

Publisher: Viking

Pages: 24

Genre: Picture Book - Traditional Literature

Rating: Thumbs Up!!

This is a colorful and interesting book on how Joseph recycles his old worn out coat over and over. Each page is delightful with the use of darker and brighter colors, as Taback hides through his artwork the future shape of the coat he continues to reuse and rework. Creativity is shown throughout as we are taken on a journey of how the coat becomes 7 different useful and needed things until the final reworked product, a button, is lost.

I truely enjoyed this book and gave it the rating of "Thumbs Up!!". The story and illustrations are captivating as you watch what will happen to the old coat next. I also enjoyed the end of the book where the author told the history of the story and followed it with a song with music that could be sang along with reading the book. This would be a perfect book to share with young readers learning about recycling.