THE WOODCUTTER'S COAT

An amusing original story about the journey of a woodcutter's warm but buttonless and shabby coat: it's stolen first by a thief who abandons it in favor of a coat with buttons, whose owner then adopts and cleans the woodcutter's coat before finding it too small and trading with a baker, who sews on buttons but thinks it's too heavy, and so on, until the woodcutter gets his considerably refurbished coat back from the tailor in exchange for a load of wood. Wilsdorf's freely drawn illustrations, enlivened with watercolor, nicely capture the comic spirit of this well-honed tale. With plenty of action, a good choice for independent reading or group sharing. (Picture book. 4-8)