Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. Like many of the recent stories about Appalachia, this picture book celebrates community. "People only need people," Minna's coal-miner father tells her, and she remembers those words after he dies. She wants to go to school, but she doesn't have a coat, until the women who come over to quilt with her mother make her a coat of their rags and patches. Minna thinks her coat is beautiful: she knows the story of every patch (the most worn pieces have the best stories), but the kids in the one-room schoolhouse taunt her about her bunch of old rags--until she shows at class sharing time that her coat is full of stories about everybody there. The book is set in the past, and there's a slight haze of sentiment over the soft-textured, full-page paintings in watercolor and graphite--even when we're told Minna is angry, she just looks sweet. But the pictures have extraordinary depth, especially the cover picture of the sturdy outsider crossing the threshold into school with the woods stretching behind her to the far horizon. The parallel with Joseph and his coat of many colors is clear and moving. ~--Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-- Minna, a young Appalachian girl, wants very badly to attend school, but she doesn't have a coat. Her father has just died and her family cannot afford one. When a group of mothers who gather at her house regularly to make quilts hear of her predicament, they decide to help her. Minna is thrilled, but when the new coat is finished and she wears it to the one-room schoolhouse, she is teased by her classmates for wearing rags. Minna is hurt, but she eventually gains their interest when she explains that her coat is full of stories--their stories--for each scrap has come from one of their homes. The children are enthralled and sorry for their taunts. Mills's care and attention to details make her book as charming as her narrative. The paper is a cream color, and the watercolor palette is warm but faded to give an antique cast to the illustrations. The large, lovely paintings that bring the characters and period to life are balanced by text on the bottom half of the left-hand pages; the generous blank space is filled with small scraps of colorful cloth. The writing is lyrical; its heartwarming message emphasizes the value of a community and sharing. It might even inspire a class quilting project--and a chance to share more stories. --Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Eight-year-old Minna is teased at school because the coat she wears is made of rags. But she tells her classmates that the coat is made from pieces of all their childhoods, and they come to understand how special it really is. The Appalachian setting is strong, and the nostalgic story is well matched by Mills's watercolor-and-pencil drawings, which have an old-fashioned feel. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Minna's family can't afford a coat for her, but Papa keeps her warm in winter with a burlap sack and Mama's patchwork quilt; this happy family understands that ``People only need people, and nothing else.'' Soon, Minna loses one of those people: Papa, a coal miner, gets the lung sickness and dies, after urging eight- year-old Minna to start school. There's still the problem of the coat, solved by neighbors who contribute scraps and help to make one of patchwork lined with the old sack, ready almost as soon as cold weather begins. At first, the other children tease Minna about her outlandish garment; then, learning that the patchwork contains bits of their own histories, they begin to honor Minna and the stories she tells about the coat's many pieces. This sweet, sober tale about love and good will overcoming poverty is reminiscent of Marguerite de Angeli's thoughtful books--especially in the soft, delicately detailed illustrations with their subtly poignant charcterizations and lovingly evoked setting in time past. Unusually appealing. (Picture book. 5-10)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
