COAT OF MANY COLORS

In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ""that one is only poor/if they choose to be."" The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ""Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life."") An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story.