Caldecott Monday: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

[osprey_archer]

It's been a long day (good! But long!) and I am pretty tired, but I wanted to knock off this post about Joseph Had a Little Overcoat before going to bed. The book (which won the 2000 Caldecott award) is based on a Yiddish folk song, about a man who had an overcoat which wore out... so he cut it down into a jacket... and then a vest... and then a scarf... and so on till it was just a button, and then he lost it, and that was the end of the overcoat, until he made this song about, so I guess that means the overcoat lives on forever in a way.

I feel like I've heard a retelling of this song in the context of American pioneers, except it wasn't presented as a retelling at all, but as a fact of life about living in a world of homespun: cloth is expensive so you use it till you've twisted every last dreg of life out of it. Maybe it's not a retelling really, but a convergence? People all around the world cut down their old clothes to get more use out of the good bits, and told stories about it...

In any case. This is a particularly Jewish telling of that tale, and quite charming. (My favorite little detail: the discarded newspaper with the headline "Fiddler on Roof Falls Off Roof.") The illustrations are sort of collage-y, with die-cut bits so that, say, you turn the page and the holes will frame just the parts of the coat necessary to make the jacket - which I think would charm me more if I hadn't spent time working in book repair: now I just look at them and quietly have vapors about how easily damaged these die-cuts are. You are giving children a book that is pre-holed, just imagine what damage they will in all innocence do when they stick their clumsy little fingers through.

Comments

[asakiyume]

That detail of the newspaper headline is excellent.

[osprey_archer]

It's a great little touch.

[sovay]

(My favorite little detail: the discarded newspaper with the headline "Fiddler on Roof Falls Off Roof.")

That is excellent.

[edit] I have seen at least one other variant of this story which I also associate with an Ashkenazi Jewish context, but I cannot remember the title or author. It was also a picture book, but without die-cuts.

[osprey_archer]

I think I may have seen one too - I visited the Eric Carl Museum a few years ago, when they had an exhibit of Jewish picture books, and I have a vague memory of seeing something else on this theme... but sadly I had a time crunch that day and could not spend all afternoon simply browsing the whole collection.

[thisbluespirit]

You are giving children a book that is pre-holed, just imagine what damage they will in all innocence do when they stick their clumsy little fingers through.

LOL, but that's okay - some books are there to be played with and not beautifully preserved!

[osprey_archer]

But the taping! So much taping, trying to keep the book going through circulation just a few more times! (Anything with flaps is like this really.) Presumably it teaches the children a fine lesson about actively engaging with their books etc., but man. So much taping.

[thisbluespirit]

*pets* No, no, you just don't mend it eventually. Some books are born to be loved to death, and that's just fine. It's worth it.

(And I say that as a librarian who weighed up the cost of every pop-up book versus their inevitable short life span vs the fun of it. ;-D)

[osprey_archer]

Slightly tangential, but I feel that the world of pop-up books has become so much more impressive in recent years. Such complicated intricate lacy paper cutouts! But these are in pop-up books for adults, which makes wear & tear less of an issue.

[thisbluespirit]

I hadn't realised that, but given the craze for intricate colouring books, it feels kind of inevitable now that you say it.

(Although, really, the person who doesn't like that Jitter Bugs one where they jump up and down on the bed is probably just lying. Who needs intricate when you can have jumping bugs?)

[osprey_archer]

I was not acquainted with this Jitter Bugs book as a child and now I fee slightly cheated. I want a book with jumping bugs!

[thisbluespirit]

Awww. I can't find that pic, but these are the ones and the jumping bugs would cleverly done so that one went up when the other one went down and it used to always make the little ones laugh. And significantly bigger people liked playing with it too.