I Like Old Clothes Read online

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Text copyright © 1976, copyright renewed 2004 by Mary Ann Hoberman

  Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright © 2012 by Patrice Barton

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published with different illustrations by Alfred A. Knopf in 1976.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hoberman, Mary Ann.

  I like old clothes / by Mary Ann Hoberman ; illustrations by Patrice Barton.

  p. cm.

  “Originally published with different illustrations by Alfred A. Knopf in 1976”—Copyright p.

  Summary: A child who likes wearing hand-me-downs imagines in verse the history of these clothes.

  ISBN 978-0-375-86951-8 (trade)

  ISBN 978-0-375-96951-5 (lib. bdg.)

  ISBN 978-0-375-98363-4 (ebook)

  [1. Stories in rhyme. 2. Clothing and dress—Fiction.] I. Barton, Patrice, ill. II. Title.

  PZ8.3.H66Iab 2012

  [E]—dc22

  2010038292

  The illustrations were created using pencil sketches and mixed media, assembled and painted digitally.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  First Page

  About the Author and Illustrator

  For my granddaughters Dorothy and Kit (who really like old clothes)

  —M.A.H.

  For my son, Seth, with love

  —P.B.

  I like old clothes,

  Hand-me-down clothes,

  Worn outgrown clothes,

  Not-my-own clothes.

  When somebody grows

  And gives me her clothes,

  I don’t say, “What, those?”

  And turn up my nose

  The way some people do

  When their clothes aren’t new.

  I like old clothes.

  I really do.

  Clothes with a history,

  Clothes with a mystery,

  Sweaters and shirts

  That are brother-and-sistery,

  Clothes that belonged to a friend of a friend,

  Who wore them to school when she lived in East Bend.

  “You lived in East Bend once, Blue Sweater,” I say.

  “Just think, you are living in my town today.”

  I like old clothes,

  Everyday clothes,

  Once-for-good clothes,

  Now-for-play clothes.

  When I wear them,

  Then I say, “Clothes,

  I wonder who wore you before you were mine?

  Was she light-haired or dark-haired, seven or nine?

  Did you make her look awful or make her look fine?”

  It’s hard to tell

  Who’d look well

  In a yellow dress,

  Who would look a mess

  In a red-striped hat.

  “Was she thin or fat?

  Did she have a cat?”

  I ask them that.

  I like old clothes,

  Cozy warm clothes,

  Broken-in clothes,

  Where’ve-you-been clothes,

  Clothes that were worn

  Before I was born

  And now are mine.

  Skirts with the line

  Of a let-down hem,

  I like them!

  And party dresses

  Not quite new,

  Not quite in style,

  I like them, too.

  I like to wonder what they’ve done,

  What games they’ve played

  And if they won,

  And if the parties turned out fun.

  I like old clothes,

  Faded-out clothes,

  Not-so-new clothes,

  Where-were-you clothes.

  And each time I wear them

  I try to imagine

  The places they’ve been

  And the faces they’ve seen—

  And whose clothes they’ll be

  When they’ve finished with me.

  MARY ANN HOBERMAN has written forty-five children’s books, almost all of them in verse. I Like Old Clothes was originally published in 1976 with different illustrations, but the text is just as relevant and accessible—and fun—as it was over thirty years ago.

  A former United States Children’s Poet Laureate and the recipient of a National Book Award and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, Mary Ann Hoberman lives in Connecticut with her husband. They have four children and five grandchildren.

  PATRICE BARTON earned a BFA in studio art from the University of Texas in Austin. Her books include Sweet Moon Baby by Karen Henry Clark, Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine by Allison Wortche, and Mine! by Shutta Crum, which received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal.

  Patrice Barton lives in Texas with her husband and son.

 

 

  Mary Ann Hoberman, I Like Old Clothes

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