I Had a Favorite Dress Read online

  For Lily,

  my favoritest girly girl

  — B.A.

  For my littlest sister, Shauna,

  with love, admiration,

  and hand-me-downs

  — J.D.

  The illustrations in this book were made using

  watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, needle and

  thread, digital collage, and a bit of Photoshop here

  and there.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for

  and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4197-0016-3

  Text copyright © 2011 Boni Ashburn

  Illustrations copyright © 2011 Julia Denos

  Book design by Chad W. Beckerman

  Published in 2011 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

  Abrams Books for Young Readers are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [email protected] or the address below.

  www.abramsbooks.com

  I had a favorite dress that was my favoritest

  dress ever.

  I wore it every Tuesday, because that

  was my favorite day of the week.

  But one Tuesday, I put on my favorite dress . . .

  and it was too short! Mama said so. Uh-oh!

  I couldn’t bear the thought of not wearing my favoritest

  dress. So I moaned and I groaned, I complained, distraught . . .

  “You’re overwrought, dear, it’s clear,” Mama said. “Don’t make

  mountains out of molehills. Make molehills out of mountains.”

  Well, that wasn’t very clear at all, I thought,

  but why not make something out of my dress?

  So I asked my mama, “Mama, dear . . .”

  And my new ruffly shirt became

  my favoritest shirt, and I wore it every

  Wednesday, because that was

  my new favorite day of the week.

  But one warm Wednesday, I put on my favorite shirt . . .

  and the sleeves were too tight! Mama said so. Uh-oh!

  Well, it took a lot less thought that time for things to

  become clear . . .

  So I asked my mama, “Mama, dear . . .”

  And my new easy-breezy tank top became my

  Thursday tank top (because Thursdays

  are always the hottest summer days), and I wore it

  every Thursday until . . .

  School! No tank tops, it’s the rule.

  So I asked my mama, “Mama, dear . . .”

  And my new cool-for-school skirt looked just right

  with my favorite tights! I wore it one Friday,

  and it felt just right, so I wore it every Friday

  (my new favorite day of the week!).

  Until the Friday that Maggie Jean (the Fashion Queen

  and my very bestest friend) said it was the end for skirts!

  “Without a doubt,” she declared, “pants are in and

  skirts are out!”

  But it was OK, don’t you know,

  ’cause just about then it started to snow.

  I showed my dear mama the snow. “Mama, see . . . ”

  And my scarf became my favoritest thing

  to wear every snowy Saturday,

  the best play-in-the-snow day,

  until the day . . .

  . . . my tassely scarf got caught in the door.

  Uh-oh! The long, swaying ends (that were now

  short and frayed) no longer swayed to and fro.

  At first I felt tears till I shook my head clear

  and showed my new problem to Mama dear . . .

  I slipped those socks on my feet every Sunday,

  which was my new favoritest day of the week.

  Because on Sundays, we go to Grandma’s house with

  the white-on-white wall-to-wall carpet, and Grandma’s

  eyebrows silently invite us to remove our shoes.

  Why, hello, nifty new socks!

  Until a Sunday, in the morn,

  when I found one sock, forlorn. Uh-oh!

  Mama said, “It’s very clear there’s not much left

  of your dear, departed dress!”

  Pretty hair bow,

  It held my hair back on the

  windiest days, on the swingiest swings,

  and through my twirliest

  twirls in ballet class.

  My hair bow, my pretty hair bow, was my

  favoritest accessory, worn for all the world to see,

  on Mondays, which are the best days ’cause

  the week is new and shiny, until . . .

  My puppy, my chewy puppy, with the tiniest,

  sharpest teeth the world has ever seen, chewed

  my pretty hair bow into the tiniest scraps of fabric

  I’d ever seen!

  “Puppy, no!” Uh-oh. It was a bow no more.

  But by now, I knew not to have a cow

  when things go wrong.

  I scooped up those scraps and bits of my

  Tuesday dress, the favoritest dress I’d ever had,

  and made . . .

  . . . this!

  Now I can wear my favoritest dress

  every day of every season of every year!

  I showed my mama, who said, “How

  wonderful, dear!”

  And she smiled and said something about mountains

  and molehills again, which still wasn’t clear . . .

  And then she looked me up and down with squinty

  eyes and added, “Don’t panic, my dear, but I fear . . .

  those pants look a little too short . . .”

  UH-OH!

 

 

  Boni Ashburn, I Had a Favorite Dress

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