cover image I Had a Favorite Dress

I Had a Favorite Dress

Boni Ashburn, illus. by Julia Denos. Abrams, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4197-0016-3

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 day%E2%80%94for 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 4%E2%80%936. (Aug.)