Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Summary

This is a well-known traditional Jewish tale that Simms Taback has made into a little masterpiece. Joseph's overcoat has a hole, so he cuts it down and turns it into a jacket. When the jacket wears out, it becomes a vest, and so on until all he is left with is the story, which he turns into a book. Each page has a die-cut through to the pattern on the next page of what each thing becomes. The artwork, a mix of painting and collage, is bright, colorful, and fun. Taback includes many adult jokes in the artwork, including newspaper headlines and book titles.

Instructional Activities

• Joseph recycles his worn out overcoat into something else that is useful. Use this book to launch a discussion on reuse and recycling. Make flower pots out of old milk jugs. Make pen holders out of coffee cans.

• Have students make a collages using cut up pictures from magazines. As in Joseph , anything green can be used for grass. Anything blue can become your sky. Use Joseph as a starting point.

• Recycled Words: Put the word "overcoat" on the board. Have students write as many words as possible using the letters from overcoat. Give points for each unique word, as in Boggle. Repeat with other words from the story.

• Character detectives: What can we learn about Joseph from the illustrations? What is his job? Who is in his family? Where does he live? What does he like to do? Have students list all of the things they can learn about Joseph and make them prove their assertions with evidence from the book.

Web Resources

PBS Teaching Unit

Painting lesson plan