Mr. Coats

About the Author\nSieb Posthuma was an award-winning Dutch illustrator whose books have been published around the world. His work has been adapted into television shows, theater, opera, and shown in numerous expositions.\nDavid Colmer is the translator of more than 60 book-length works of Dutch-language literature and has won many prizes for his translations, including the Vondel Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the NSW Premier and PEN Translation Prize for his body of work, and the Dutch Foundation for Literature oeuvre prize.\nMr. Coats is freezing cold.\nNo matter how many heaters he turns on, how many blankets he sleeps under at night, or how many layers he wears, he can simply never get warm.\nBeing this cold all the time is lonely. And loneliness is a chilly feeling. Mr. Coats thinks he'll be alone in the cold forever, but he's wrong. There's someone out there just like him.\nFrom School Library Journal\nPreS-Gr 4-Profoundly, unseasonably, incurably cold, Mr. Coats tries everything-blankets, stoves, hot-water bottles-to no avail. Piling coat over vibrant coat, he becomes too wide to pass through his own door, and instead camps inside his many layers, building a fire "between his coattails." One day, now famous, he is hoisted by crane onto a flatbed truck and taken to another town, where a woman peeks out from amidst her own heap of outerwear. The two find much to talk about, and soon discover to their surprise that they are warming up from the inside. Mr. and Mrs. Coats peel down to a mere two coats, his and hers, hanging side by side in the house they now share. The palette hints at the possibility of warmth from the start, especially in the small red bird who accompanies Mr. Coats everywhere, while the garments burst with hot colors and varied patterns. In Posthuma's quirky naïve illustration style, Mr. and Mrs. Coats are doll-like figures who seem made for each other. VERDICT Like Sheila Moore's classic Samson Svenson's Baby, this story proves there is a lid for every pot, and even young children will warm to the story of love thawing two chilly people.-Patricia Lothropα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.