Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

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Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is the title of a 1999 book by Simms Taback that won the 2000 Caldecott Medal. The main character is Joseph, a 40-something Jewish farmer, who has a little striped overcoat. When it is old, Joseph makes it into a little jacket and so on until he makes it into a button. Then Joseph loses the button and makes a story out of it. The moral of the story is "you can always make something out of nothing."
The story has die-cut illustrations consisting of watercolor and collage. Readers of the story say that Joseph greatly resembles Simms Taback.
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is based on the Yiddish song I Had a Little Overcoat. Barbara Kiefer, chair of the Caldecott Award Committee, commented, "Vibrant rich colors, playful details, and skillfully-placed die cuts contribute to the books raucous merriment that takes this Yiddish folk song far beyond the simple words."
The story is read on the children’s show Between the Lions.