Minna’s Patchwork Coat by Lauren Mills - ESSENTIAL

Mills, Lauren A  Minna’s Patchwork Coat, 268 pgs.  Little, Brown & Company, 2015.  $17.00.  Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: G; 

Growing up in the backwoods of Appalachia has it’s challenges for young Minna, such as not being able to attend school because she doesn’t have a coat.  However, the lessons she learns from family and friends, like local midwife and medicine woman Aunt Nora, prove to be more important than Minna could imagine.  

Minna’s Patchwork Coat is a lovely, touching tale that is an expansion of the picture book The Rag Coat by the same author.  Minna’s innocent, trusting, curious way of looking at the world teaches everyone around her how to overcome challenges and see past our differences.  The reader’s notes at the end are an interesting appendix about how the story developed and provides interesting historical notes about the songs used in the story.  

EL, MS- ESSENTIAL.  J. Hafen