I Had a Favorite Dress

Written by Boni Ashburn

Narrated by Bahni Turpin

As the year passes, the narrator's favorite dress goes through a series of creative changes, from dress to shirt to tank top to scarf and so on, until all that's left of it is a good memory. Assisted by her patient and crafty mama, the narrator finds that when disaster strikes her favorite things, she doesn't need to make mountains out of molehills - she 'makes molehills out of mountains' instead! Structured around the days of the week, the story is also illustrated to show the passing of the seasons, a perfect complement to the themes of growing older and keeping hold (and letting go) of special mementos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio
• Release date: Mar 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633797918

Boni Ashburn

Boni Ashburn is the author of Hush, Little Dragon and Over at the Castle. She lives in Houghton, Michigan, with her four children.

Reviews for I Had a Favorite Dress

[roxygamboa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is such a great book for any little girl to read. The young girl in the story was attached to her favorite dress. Everytime something happened to it her mother seemed to have saved it and made it into something else. This story will help kids with their creativity.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Distraught when her favorite dress, always worn on her favorite day (Tuesday) becomes too small to wear, the young heroine of this charming picture-book turns to her mother, and "Snip, Snip, Sew, Sew... New shirt, Hello!" This new garment soon becomes the young girl's favorite piece of clothing, always worn on her (new) favorite day, Wednesday. As time goes on, the erstwhile dress becomes smaller and smaller, transformed into a tank top, a skirt, a scarf, and a hair-bow. When even this is destroyed, a final use is made of the remnants of the beloved garment, enabling the girl to hold on to her memories...I'm grateful to my friend Gundula for reviewing this sweet book, as I had initially passed it by, thinking it to be a fairly standard 'dressing up' story. There's nothing wrong with dressing-up stories, of course, when done right - children learn through imitation, after all, and many young people experiment by dressing up in their parents' clothing, or by wearing costumes of various kinds - but I somehow wasn't attracted to it. I'm glad that I read a review putting me right, however, as I Had a Favorite Dress turned out to be a charming tale of a girl and her mother, and their creative use of sewing to repurpose a beloved article of clothing, rather than just throwing it away. I appreciated both the frugality and artistry involved in the process being depicted in the story, and thought the accompanying artwork, done in watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, needle and thread, and digital collage, perfectly captured the sense of fun throughout. I also appreciated the fact that mother and daughter are African-American, but that this is not commented upon at all in text or artwork, as I think we need more lighthearted books featuring diverse characters. Recommended to anyone looking for fun and creative mother-daughter tales, or stories incorporating sewing-craft and clothing issues.

[thnguyen-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can relate to this book because I have a dress that I love and I don't want to throw it out even thought I don't fit it anymore. The illustrator did a really good job with the illustration. Feels like the picture is in 3-D. I love how she loves her dress so much that she couldn't get rid of it so she made it into different piece of clothing she could.

[alissabecker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young girls starts off the story with a favorite dress, but as she grows older/taller, and fashion changes around her, she must ask her mom to alter her favorite dress to create new pieces of clothing. She makes into a top, then a skirt, then a scarf and finally into socks. She learns to deal with change and move from one piece of clothing to the next. It's a good story of transition.

[shazzerwise_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lovely both inside and out. A young girl's favorite dress changes with the seasons and her own growing self to become a shirt, a tank, a skirt, a scarf and more. Boni Ashburn's story has a wonderful vibrancy to it, with the repeated refrain of "Snip, snip, sew, sew, new [insert clothing item here] hello!". I also loved the final outcome of the dress, which is sweet and simple. Julia Denos' illustrations are gorgeous and the coloring is divine. I wish I could live in this picture book. And I wish I could sew like the girl's mother!

[hopemiller123 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is about a girl girl and her favorite dress. Throughout the story as she's growing and getting bigger like all children, her dress is too short one day. Her mother see this and comes up with a solution to the problem and sews the dress into a shirt. MOre time goes by and they are more thing that happen to this dress, for example, the sleeves come off, it becomes a skirt, a scarf, socks and a hairpiece. Finally, there really is nothing left of her dress and she makes it into a painting so she can always remember her favorite dress. This is a cute book about reinventing something and a close mother daughter relationship. I think that kids could relate to the girl in the story because we all have our favorite things that would cause a meltdown if something happened to it. And also the feeling of never wanting something you love ever end, like a toy or dress or blanket.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A girl loves her favorite dress, but it is now too small for her. Her clever mother shapes it into new things the girl can wear. As the girl grows, the dress is transformed into a shirt, then a tank top, then a scarf, then socks, until it finally becomes a beautiful hair bow.A nice story about using creativity to solve a problem.“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 tought of not wearing my favoritest dress. So I moaned and 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.’”