I Had a Favorite Dress

What happens when a little girl's dress becomes too small, but she can't bear to part with it because it's her favorite dress? Narrator Bahni Turpin tells us with joyful high tones and a musical intonation that captures the little girl's imagination, disappointment, and subsequent joy as she and her mother come up with creative solutions to extend the life of the dress through numerous transformations. Turpin's singsong modulations capture the lightheartedness of this story and the protagonist's cuteness. Musical accompaniment adds to the upbeat mood of this sweet story and its themes of growing up and active problem solving. M.F. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

August 8, 2011
In a spunky story about adjusting to change with creativity and style, a young fashionista loves her salmon-pink dress with its striped bodice and ruffles, wearing it every Tuesday, her favorite day of the week. But one day, the dress is too short, so Mama, dressed in her own boho-stylish clothes, works some refashioning magic, "And snip, snip, sew, sew... New shirt, hello!" When the sleeves get too tight, Mama turns it into a tank top and later a skirt, which the girl wears every Friday, her new favorite dayâfor the moment. Readers should enjoy the beloved dress's transitions (including incarnations as a scarf and a pair of socks), which are vibrantly conveyed through Denos's (Dotty) mixed-media collages composed of hip colors, jazzy patterns, and delicate pencilwork. Ashburn's (Over at the Castle) prose is shot through with loose internal rhymes ("And my new cool-for-school skirt looked just right with my favorite tights! I wore it one Friday and it felt just right"), giving the story a buoyancy to match its heroine. Tailor-made, so to speak, for the Etsy generation of DIY enthusiasts. Ages 4â6.