The Rag Coat [Hardcover]

Lauren Mills (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: P and up

With paintings that capture all the beauty of Appalachia in authentic detail, this tender story about a resourceful mountain girl's special coat will touchreaders with its affirming message of love and friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 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
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

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 ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (September 3, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316574074
• ISBN-13: 978-0316574075
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 0.8 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, October 25, 2002

By 

bookworm (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rag Coat (Hardcover)

One of the most touching and beautiful stories I have ever read! A little girl loses the father she so deeply loves, but never forgets the important lessons he taught her or the love he had for her. Her dream is to go to school, but her family can't buy her a coat. Finally, kind friends of her mama help make her a coat out of quilt pieces. Her excitement at wearing her new coat to school and sharing it with her new friends quickly changes to sadness when she is taunted by her playmates. But she remembers her father's lessons and his love and helps her friends come to see how special her coat is--to ALL of them! This story is part of the reading series I teach from and when I read it for the first time last year, my class was staring at me in amazement as I sobbed my way through the end! I had to get a copy for myself and my little girl!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars deeply moving story of dealing with sorrow and teasing, June 16, 2002

By 

Good Yarns "Tuckertribe" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Rag Coat (Hardcover)

I must confess, I was not prepared to read my 5 year old a book on death...and I was a little shocked to find out during my first time reading it to her (I guess I should have pre-read it). Even so, I loved it, and so did she! This story deals with the sorrow of death and the humiliation of poverty in a real and positive way, without being sentimental. It is beautiful to see a child come up with a loving solution to her problems.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravery, April 14, 2004

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rag Coat (Hardcover)

The narrator lives with her parents in a small mining town. Her father is a miner and her mother is a quilter. The girl wants to go to school, but doesn't have a coat to wear. Her father would like her to go to school, but dies of black lung disease before she can start. After her father dies, the family becomes even poorer. The women in her mother's quilting group hear about the girl's dream of going to school and that she needs a coat to make the dream come true, so they make her one out of each family's rags. When the girl arrives at school in her rag coat, the other students tease her, but then she starts telling them the stories that go with each rag in her coat. As a result, the children come to respect her. The story is great for older children, and particularly engaging for girls. It has about 2000 words.