Joseph Had a Little Overcoat－童玩繪本樂

                 The Caldecott Medal 2000

Summary

Joseph, the main character, turns an old and worn overcoat into a variety of different clothing objects - the coat into a jacket, a vest, a scarf, a tie, a handkerchief, and finally, a button. As the story concludes, Joseph loses the button. Rather than giving it up, he decides to create a book about it, proving to his readers that you can always make something out of nothing - the theme of this book.

Illustration

Visualization is the fundamental key used for the illustrations in “Joseph had a little overcoat” by Simms Taback. Consisted of clipping from magazines, photographs, postcards, and astounding paintings - created with watercolor, collage, gouache, pencil and ink - the readers get the picture of this book effectively. Diverse artistic strategies are applied in this masterpiece. In order to analyze the details of the illustrations more concisely, I separate them into four parts: cover, insiders, background, and text.

Front/Back Cover

Some of the animals which often appear in the book are presented on the cover with a black frame around the illustrations. Joseph’s name is made out of paper clips, the overcoat has cut-out holes to show that it is worn and old, the words are written in yellowish-orange and the S and the T in Simms Taback's name are written in red. The second page of the book depicts a pair of scissors and a needle, leading readers into a brief insight and ever so slight preview of the story. Moreover, the endpapers each continue with the chaotic clips of paper, photos, and clothing scraps, demonstrating that although many times things appear to be useless or worthless, you can always make something out of nothing. In concluding the book, Simms Taback fills the entire back cover with buttons of all shapes and sizes. Through this skill, the readers can fully understand that the overcoat is made into other clothing as well during the joyful reading process.

Insiders

Present on each page are a variety of bright and primary colors that transit curious readers from one page to the next. Each page, along with many animal friends and people, is illustrated to keep the book interesting and fun at the same time. According to Piaget, children at this stage need a large amount of repetition to recite or recognize new vocabulary. Simms Taback well used clothing objects like overcoat, jacket, vest, scarf, necktie, handkerchief, and buttons by cut-outs to help children relate words to pictures. In the story, Joseph wears a bright yellow shirt and blue pants, which as the story progresses, becomes more obvious, especially as the once large overcoat transforms from a handkerchief into a button. The yellow shirt is presented on every page of the story, even while Joseph is in bed. Taback illustrates various aspects of the Jewish life in Poland. Pictures of various farm animals, fruits and vegetables, Jewish proverbs, and crackers appear on different pages. Each of these symbolizes Joseph's culture. Taback also convinces the reader that music is a prominent part of the his culture. There are two examples showing Joseph dancing at his nephew's wedding, while musicians play and Joseph singing in the men's chorus. Joseph seems to be enjoying the music.

Background

The backgrounds on each page contain a great deal of texture, are often filled up with postcards, newspaper clippings such as "When a coat is old, only the holes are new" and "Fiddler on roof, falls from the roof!", and photographs of people. By including these pieces of information in the story, the author continues to successfully reinforce the significance of Jewish culture and the traditions of his world into the readers' minds. Next, the DARK sky is painted in purple with a bright yellow moon hanging in the background while he found his clothing old and worn. By the contrast, when talking and singing among his friends, pages are painted with bright red in order to show his happiness.

Text

The text is inspired by a Yiddish song, which the new edition gives on a back page and serves to provide rhythm and repetition. The style of the text is boldly colored in yellow but the letter “J” for Joseph is in red. Each word stands out as it was probably intended to be. However, I found out that a problem exists at this page – Joseph made a book about it. Simms Taback seems to make something wrong here. He colors the letter “S” in red except all the other “S” is in yellow. Next is followed with the song “I Had a Little Overcoat”

I HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT (Hob Ich Mir a Mantl)

http://mp3demo.catstw.com.tw/mp3_demo/5037070041089_02.mp3

I had a little overcoat, much too old to sew
La La La La La La La La La La La
Whatever could I do with it, I just didn't know
La La La La La La La La La La La
So I thought what I could do
And made myself a jacket that was almost new
La La La La La La La La La La La La La La
Made myself a jacket that was almost new

I had a little jacket, Made myself a vest

I had a little vest, Made myself a tie

I had a little tie, Made myself a button
I had a little button, wherever did it go
La La La La La La La La La La La
Whatever did I do with it, I just didn't know
La La La La La La La La La La La
So I thought what I could do
But all I had was nothing, neither old nor new
La La La La La La La La La La La La La La
But all I had was nothing, neither old nor new

(-) All I had was nothing, and nothing much to sew
La La La La La La La La La La La
What could I do with nothing, I just didn't know
La La La La La La La La La La La
So I thought what I could do
And sang my-self a song and I sing this song to you
La La La La La La La La La La La La La La
Sang my-self a song and I sing this song to you

Reflection

Something can be nothing, and nothing can be something. Simms Taback explains this with a significant example for all the readers by his unique and beautiful illustration and texture. The recognizable pattern of the cloth changing into even smaller items and the repetition of Joseph’s items getting worn out are appealing to the younger readers. Nowadays, the children are lack of the concepts of recycling and reusing items around their routine life. Extension ideas, such as exploring the great outdoors and learn how we recycle things to produce other things, can be brought out by this book and at the same time, read though the whole story with joy. After each reading, I am able to find more hidden pictures in each page. What is more, the idea of multi-culture, placed at the building windows while Joseph visits his married sister, directly represents the author’s determination on entertaining and suiting the tastes of people all over the world.

Simms Taback's own illustrative style directly attracts readers’ insight page by page. Always with a smile, Joseph lives happily in his own world, often surrounded by family and friends. Although he always remains on the left side of the page, sometimes isolated, he is never truly alone. Whenever he is home, whether animal sleeping and hanging around, or a window or door opens to the outside colorful world where he lives, he is able to create some fun for himself. As the readers explore Joseph’s world, the cut-out pages create more interests in readers consistently. Joseph's little adventure with his overcoat can help children learn different articles of clothing and different uses of words. If a child can read, then they can learn the words because the picture is right there in front of them.

Simple vocabulary, word repetition, amusing humor takes place throughout the whole story. With the Jewish folktale - I had a Little Overcoat, younger readers would have the ability to recite the story again and again without difficulty.

Eventually, by all the reasons listed above, I strongly recommend this book for all the parents and teachers because the children, as visual readers, definitely would gain a lot through this teaching method.

A different version of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat from Youtube.
Enjoy it and have a laugh. :)