Happy 75th, Simms Taback! (2000 Caldecott Medalist: "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat")

[leno...@yahoo.com]

He lives in Willow, New York (the Catskills).

He also won a 1998 Caldecott Honor for "There Was an Old Lady Who
Swallowed a Fly."

In "Contemporary Authors":

"Simms Taback is a children's book author and illustrator whose
brightly colored cartoon drawings and torn-paper collages are often
singled out by reviewers for their jolly good humor and striking use
of black backgrounds."

In "Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young
Adults" (about JHaLO):

"Joseph, the protagonist, is a resilient tailor with a very battered
old coat. He loves the coat and does not wish to part with it, so he
makes a jacket of it. When the jacket becomes old and worn, he is
still reluctant to throw it out, so he makes a vest. Thus the story
continues as the onetime overcoat is transformed by turns into a
scarf, a necktie, a handkerchief, and finally a button; always Joseph
makes something new out of what seems to be nothing."

http://www.cbcbooks.org/cbcmagazine/meet/simms_taback.html
(interview)

http://www.creativeparents.com/simmsinterv.html
(another in Q & A format)

http://www.kidspoint.org/columns2.asp?column_id=1290&column_type=author
(short bio)

http://www.hbook.com/publications/magazine/articles/jul00_ruffins.asp
(Horn Book Magazine article by illustrator Reynold Ruffins)

http://www.briefbio.com/pages/2315/Taback-Simms-1932.html
(bibliography)

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=simms+taback
(12 pages of photos & book covers)

Lenona.