THE LIFE OF A COAT

In this variant of the popular tale of a coat that grows smaller and smaller while never losing its usefulness, a tailor, his wife, his several children, and his goat all participate in the stitchery.

Rhyming couplets follow the family as the father fashions a coat for his son. The son grows too big for the coat, and it is passed on to another son. With its sleeves now torn, the garment goes to a daughter but loses its lining. Another daughter gets to wear it, but the pockets are lost. A mischievous son tears it apart with his wild behavior. Finally, the remnants find a home on various pets and the goat. The text is translated from the Yiddish of a poet and teacher who wrote it in 1931 in her native Poland. The lengthy poem is presented primarily as captions to the graphic panels with occasional speech bubbles within the illustrations. The multisyllabic Yiddish proper names may be a challenge for those not familiar with the language, but an enthusiastic reader can have fun conveying the antics. Kolton’s illustrations have an early-20th-century comics aesthetic. The humans have exaggerated comic features and hairstyles, and the setting has an Old World feel.

Those who like their stories full of larger-than-life expression will find an outlet for their efforts.