Father has his three sons to create cloaks for the archduke. Sons uses various shapes to create the perfect cloak to see whose will be chosen.

This is a story of a tailor and his three sons. All three help him and he hopes one day they will become tailors. The Archduke needs 3 cloaks and 3 dresses made so the tailor has each son make a cloak while he makes the dresses. Two of his sons make great cloaks, one of them even makes 2 cloaks. But Misha makes a cloak out of circles, representing the blue oceans, green meadows, yellow sand of deserts, and red routes between far away places. Misha wanted to travel the world and his cloak represented it. The tailor realized when he saw Misha's cloak that his son should travel and not be a tailor. The next day the tailor and his two other sons fix the cloak that Misha has make so that he can wear it when he travels. This would be a good book to use in math. It incorporates shapes, patterns, and geometry. ( )

A well told tale of three brothers who work for their tailor father. While two aspire to follow in the dad's business, the other has dreams of something more. While his tailoring skills are not great, his vivid imagination is revealed to his father who decides to set him free to travel the world. The older brothers would help encourage this by creating a special cloak for him to take on his journey. ( )

This book is a good example of a legend/myth because it starts with once upon a time, and it sounds like a story that has been told for many years. The third son is named Ivan and he is a dynamic character that dreams big! You can tell that he has other passions than tailoring, and eventually his father helps him do what he is passionate about. This book would be great to read to the primary grades or intermediate grades.

Genre: Folk Tale

Critique of Genre: This is an excellent example of a folk tale. The story starts with the words, “Once there was a tailor...” and it continues by telling the reader about this tailor and his three sons. It is a story that relates to plausible adventures of humans and it is based on a people’s customs and values, especially as related to the tailor occupation.

Age: Primary, Intermediate

Critique of Point of View: (See star rating above) ( )