Goat's Coat

In buoyant rhymed couplets and well-executed meter, Percival (Perfectly Norman) underscores the rewards of resourcefulness and care in this cheering friendship story. Winsome multimedia art by Pym (Little Mouse's Big Breakfast) shows Alfonzo the goat cutting a dapper figure, clad in a flashy checked coat that is admired by all the neighborhood animals. When he hears the sad croaking of a frog family whose log has rotted away, the goat selflessly rips the cuffs off his jacket to fashion a boat for them. "Alfonzo's new coat didn't look quite so smart, / but he felt a warm glow in the depths of his heart." The jacket becomes increasingly unraveled as Alfonzo tears off bits and pieces to aid other friends, until the garment is reduced to a collar and a pocket, which, in a particularly moving scene, he uses to save a chick stranded in a tree. When the coatless ungulate ends up shivering in a blizzard, his pals pay his kindness forward, and the story leads to a rewarding and colorful finale featuring Alfonzo and other animal friends sporting dazzling cold-weather garb. Ages 3-6. (Dec.)

"This charming story is ideal for story-time read-alouds or building values and character education collections at home or in the classroom." —Foreword Reviews