The latest rendition of the Yiddish folk song “I Had a Little Overcoat” is given charming treatment by Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock. At its heart, this is a love story spanning generations as a man falls in love, makes a wedding coat, and then transforms that coat time and time again as his family grows and changes. He has a daughter, the narrator’s mother. Remnants of the wedding coat, already turned into a jacket, and later a vest, become a tie for her wedding day. That tie wears out over years in which the narrator is born, grows up, and marries. Now she has a child, to whom she is telling this story, and the tie has been turned into a toy for that little boy. Both the narrative, with its judicious use of rhyme and alliteration and marvelous repetition and pacing, and the illustrations, which add layers of wonderful detail and warmth, are irresistible. (Ages 4–8)

When my grandfather came to America he made himself a handsome coat! Then he wore it and he wore it and he wore it -- until it was all worn out! So what did he do? He snipped and he clipped, and he stitched and he sewed, and out of the still-good cloth of his coat, he made himself a smart jacket! How many things can Grandfather make over the years out of that old frayed coat?