A Coat Called Sam
Rona really loved the coat that her great grandmother bought her when she was only a year old. She liked it so much that she gave it a name, Sam, and refused to part with it. She wore it all the time, went everywhere with it on, and she never took it off, even not at night when she went to sleep. But Rona grew bigger, and the coat stayed small. Nevertheless, even when pieces were cut out of it and it got dirty and shabby, Rona wouldn’t give it up. What could be done to wean Rona away from Sam? Her experienced pre-school teacher wanted to help and came up with an idea to solve the problem once and for all, but her suggestion wasn’t accepted. And so, when her fourth birthday was approaching, Rona was still going around with Sam, although there was nothing left of it, just the collar and a strip of cloth with a few buttons attached to it. Mom and dad decided that the time had come to put an end to this and that at her birthday party, Rona would at last be without that thing she called Sam.
An original and thought-provoking story, for kids and their parents, about wanting to keep forever things that we loved as children, about what gradually dissipates and vanishes from our lives as we grow up, and about the human need to remember childhood and its symbols.
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“Dror Burstein restricts his text to action and dialogue … He doesn’t write that the coat was as close to Rona as a friend, just that she gave it a human name. This spares the book sentimentality without diminishing its emotional intensity … To me, this book isn’t about the loss of childhood, but rather about the birth of a myth. ”
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“Burstein emphasizes the importance and the beauty in remembering childhood, and the value inherent in being close to one’s emotions … A Coat Called Sam is a challenging story, unusual and interesting in the way that it conveys the story, on both the textual and visual levels. It will certainly ignite a fascinating debate about children’s literature, and if only for that it is worthy. ”