The Life of a Coat

By Kadya Molodowsky & Batia Kolton. Published by Fantagraphics. 

Hardcover, 28 pages, Colour, 2019. 

This comic in children’s book format is about the whimsical lifespan of a coat, worn by each child in a family.

When the father of a large family makes a beautiful winter coat, little does he know how much use it will get. Little Gedalia wears the coat with pride all year, but when it gets too tight for him—he’s a growing boy, after all—it’s given to his sister, Yeshaya. Thus begins the journey of the coat as it’s passed down from child to child, a charming portrait of a loving family. Drawn in a clean-line style with a muted color palette, The Life of a Coat is based on the beloved Yiddish poem by the Polish poet Kadya Molodowsky and will delight young readers and their parents.

“A wonderfully fun young graphic novel, the perfect way to revive this old Yiddish classic.” — New York Journal of Books

“A dark, wit­ty pic­ture of Jew­ish life in pre-World War II East­ern Europe. … high­ly rec­om­mend­ed both for chil­dren and for adults who are inter­est­ed in Yid­dish literature.” — Jewish Book Council