Name: Charlie Needs a Cloak
ISBN: 9780671664671

Tomie dePaola

A shepherd shears his sheep, cards and spins the wool, weaves and dyes the cloth, and sews a beautiful new red cloak.

Charlie Needs a Cloak

Sarah Sammis

An adorable book that teaches about the making of clothing from wool. The little sheep that follows Charlie through the story reminds me a bit of Shaun from A Close Shave.

Jessica Nottingham

Charlie definitely needs a new cloak. His old cloak has holes in it and gets nibbled on by the sheep when he isn't paying attention! What's a young sheep herder to do?

I adore this book so much! The pictures and simple wording are amazing for young children, and it walks the reader through the steps to making clothing from sheep's wool. First Charlie shears, then washes and cards, then spins. It's all so amazingly simple when Tommie dePaola writes and illustrates it, and the book kept the kids engaged for quite a long time after the book was done. They had tons of questions!

As an added bonus, there's a mischievous little mouse on each page that the kids can find. He tends to be up to no good, and the kids had a blast picking him out. In a society where most children have no idea where their clothes come from (and no it's not Walmart) I think that this is an amazing book to spark conversation. Tommie dePaola does a wonderful job and I'm smitten!

Charlie Needs a Cloak

Reviews