Synopsis
A poor girl delights in her coat of many colors, made by her mother from rags, because despite the ridicule of the other children she knows the coat was made with love.
Reviews
PreSchool-Grade 2-This illustrated version of a song by Parton recalls her Tennessee childhood. A mother fashions a coat from rags and tells her daughter the Bible story of Joseph. At school the other children tease the girl until she explains the coat's value because it has been stitched with love. Perhaps the rhythm of the verse lends itself more to song than speech for at some points reading aloud turns bumpy. Quilt patterns border each double-page spread, and all of the illustrations exude a pastel prettiness that seems at odds with the poverty implied by the text. In fact, the busy, cooperative, well-scrubbed, well-fed family appear romanticized as though viewed through idealized memories. Lauren Mills's The Rag Coat (Little, 1991), while a bit longer, provides a more realistic view of both family hardship and the communal effort involved in easing poverty. Since Mills cites Parton's song as one of the sources for her story, the similarities between the books is not surprising.
Kathy Piehl, Mankato State University, MN
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The country legend turns the lyrics of her first hit song into an appetizingly sweet first foray into picture books. Based on an incident from Parton's childhood--she grew up penniless in the Tennessee hills--the story tells of a girl whose mother makes her a patchwork coat out of rags. Even when her schoolmates make fun of it, the girl treasures the coat because of "the love that mama sewed in every stitch." The heartfelt verses are imbued with the same genuine, infectiously likable spirit Parton herself projects, and the book easily transcends its literary shortcomings (chiefly, an occasional rough cadence that may be easy to smooth over musically but is likely to cause stumbling when read aloud). The flaws are minor, however, and, like a homemade quilt with a few awkward stitches, only serve to enhance the book's charm. Sutton brings a soft touch; although her patchwork-bordered watercolors tend to sentimentalize the grinding poverty of Appalachia, they nevertheless evoke the generosity and spirit of the close-knit family Parton celebrates. "One is only poor, if they choose to be," writes Parton--an ungrammatical country cliche perhaps, but wisdom worth sharing. All ages.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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