The Un-forgotten Coat 

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Printed on what looks like lined paper, journal format with Polaroids throughout the story, this book is a remembrance of two Mongolian brothers who named the narrator, Julie, their “Good Guide”. The brothers first made an impression on Julie because they were wearing long, furry coats in the hot sun during summer school. And when the older brother, Chengis, began talking to Julie about how to keep an eagle calm, she says, “And in that moment, I felt my own ignorance spread suddenly out behind me like a pair of wings, and every single thing I didn’t know was a feather on those wings. I could feel them tugging at the air, restless to be airborne.”  Julie ends up taking her Good Guide responsibilities very seriously and the un-forgotten coat triggers the memories of the brothers and how they opened her eyes to a world larger than she knew before.

Boyce, F. C. (2011). The un-forgotten coat. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.