The Magical, Mystical, Marvelous Coat!
 Catherine Ann Cullen, Illustr David Christiana
 (Associate Student Reviewer - Karrie G.)
 2001 Little, Brown & Co.
  ISBN: 0316163341


A little girl has a favorite winter coat with magical buttons. One day she meets six friends in need & her buttons allow her to do the good deed of helping each in different ways.

Associate Student Reviewer & Writer Karrie G. writes:

The Magical, Mystical, Marvelous Coat is a fantastic children's book in which a little girl tells about “her funkiest, chunkiest, favorite thing” -- her winter coat. It is not just any old winter coat, for it has six magical buttons, which help her to solve her new friends' troubles.

The first button, a shiny blue one that says COLD on it, cools a giant's sun burnt head.

The second, a bright red one that says HOT, helps warm a frost-bitten swan's wings buried in snow, so she can fly away.

The third, a sea-green one, soothes an angry storm so a ship of brave sailors can sail safely to shore & the fourth, a gold twinkling star that looked as though it might have been stolen from a beautiful night sky, brings magic to a miserable wizard's wand.

The fifth, an ordinary stone, proves to be not so ordinary when it blocks the hiding place of two lovely bunnies, to keep a sly snake from creeping in.

The final & sixth, is an adorable little doll in a coat remarkably like her own. This button she gives to a little elf, who had no one his size to marry.

Feeling satisfied with her good deeds, the little girl returns home, back to a normal everyday life. Her parents, however, feel losing all her buttons in one day is not such a good deed at all! Luckily they find extra buttons in her coat pocket & at that moment there is a knock at the door & they are all amazed to see all the girl's wonderful newfound friends there!

They all happily rejoice, congratulating the little girl for having such a “megacooliferous, truly meltificent, meal-stopping, magical, maritime, marrying, but mostly just marvelous coat!”

Catherine Ann Cullen's style reminds me a little of Dr. Seuss & the illustrations by David Christiana are very well-drawn & really light up the book.

A great way to learn to count, to name the colors & to read; to see how good deeds are done & their results. I recommend The Magical, Mystical, Marvelous Coat to anyone with small children around -- they'll love it!

More from Illustrator David Christiana: The First Snow; A Tooth Fairy's Tale; The Christmas Promise written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; Silver Morning written by Susan Pearson; I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert written by Eve Bunting; Tales of Trickery from the Land of Spoof written by Alvin Schwartz; The Tale I Told Sasha written by Nancy Willard; Gold & Silver, Silver & Gold: Tales of Hidden Treasure written by Alvin Schwartz; Good Griselle written by Jane Yolen & many more!
(12/16/01)

Karrie G.
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Student Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
Karrie G. lives in The Netherlands. She is 15 years old, attends a Dutch Language School & is originally from Wisconsin, USA

Her favorite colors are: light blue, sea green, lavender & black!
Favorite sports are: swimming & soccer.
Favorite school subjects are: languages & creative writing class.
Favorite things to do are: playing the piano, reading, writing short stories & poetry, drawing & going to the movie theater.
The Netherlands is one of the smallest countries in Europe. Most people call the Netherlands Holland & it is about the size of Connecticut, but with a lot more people, sixteen million. You may think of tulips, chocolate, windmills & wooden shoes when you think of Holland. Although there are still lots of tulips & chocolate, & there are still some windmills, you wouldn't see many people wearing clogs today.