Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Scholastic Press (2014), 32 pages
Description
A tailor's very old overcoat is recycled numerous times over the years into a variety of garments and other uses.
Awards
Nebraska Golden Sower Award (Nominee — 2017)
Young Hoosier Book Award (Nominee — Picture Book — 2017)
Triple Crown Awards (Nominee — 2017)
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Winner — 2015)
Red Clover Book Award (Nominee — 2016)
Aesop Prize (Accolade — 2015)
Volunteer State Book Award (Nominee — Primary — 2017)
Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award (Nominee — 2017)
Iowa Goldfinch Award (Nominee — 2017)
CCBC Choices (2015)
The Best Children's Books of the Year (Five to Nine — 2015)
Illinois Reads (K-2 — 2016)
Texas 2x2 Reading List (2015)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member Jennifer LeGault
Based on a Yiddish folk song, this is a story of an American Immigrant who is a tailor and his life story is told as he sews a coat and as it wears out, he alters it into smaller and smaller items.
LibraryThing member jennybeast
Good rhymes, good idea. Similar to I had a favorite dressby Ashburn in recycling/sewing theme.
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
Using the Yiddish folk song Hob Ikh Mir a Mantel ("I Had a Little Overcoat") as a starting point, author Jim Aylesworth and illustrator Barbara McClintock tell the tale of a man—the narrator's grandfather—who made himself a handsome coat for his wedding. A tailor by trade, the man wore his coat
Having greatly enjoyed many of the other picture-books created by this author/illustrator team—The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Tale of Tricky Fox, etc.—I went into My Grandfather's Coat with pleased anticipation, and I was not disappointed. I found the story engaging, and appreciated the message about being frugal and remaking items in our possession, and the themes of hard work and family love. The accompanying artwork by McClintock, done in ink and watercolor, was lovely, although I don't know that I would say it was the best work she had done. There is another picture-book retelling of this song, Simms Taback's Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, which won the Caldecott Medal in 2000, that has a very different illustrative style. I enjoyed that telling as well, and think reading the two together would be an interesting exercise for young people on the idea that different authors and artists interpret the same source material differently. Recommended to fellow fans of this author and artist, as well as to those seeking picture-books with a Jewish cultural background.
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out, at which point he transformed it into a sharp jacket. Repeating the process, with the jacket becoming a vest, the vest a tie, the tie a kitten's toy, and the kitten's toy a mouse's nest, the narrative follows the grandfather through the years, as he raises a daughter, cherishes a granddaughter, and adores a great-granddaughter. Eventually the coat became nothing—nothing but a story...Having greatly enjoyed many of the other picture-books created by this author/illustrator team—The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Tale of Tricky Fox, etc.—I went into My Grandfather's Coat with pleased anticipation, and I was not disappointed. I found the story engaging, and appreciated the message about being frugal and remaking items in our possession, and the themes of hard work and family love. The accompanying artwork by McClintock, done in ink and watercolor, was lovely, although I don't know that I would say it was the best work she had done. There is another picture-book retelling of this song, Simms Taback's Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, which won the Caldecott Medal in 2000, that has a very different illustrative style. I enjoyed that telling as well, and think reading the two together would be an interesting exercise for young people on the idea that different authors and artists interpret the same source material differently. Recommended to fellow fans of this author and artist, as well as to those seeking picture-books with a Jewish cultural background.
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ISBN
0439925452 / 9780439925457
Other editions
My Grandfather's Coat by Jim Aylesworth (Paperback)
My Grandfather's Coat by Jim Aylesworth (Paperback)