The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Peggy is the most popular girl in the class and Maddie is her best friend. Wanda is a poor girl from the wrong side of town with a funny last name. One day, when the girls are gathered and admiring a new dress of a classmate, Wanda says that she has 100 dresses at home. This starts the daily teasing of Wanda by Peggy and many others. Although Maddie doesn’t join in, she stands by and says nothing.

There is a drawing contest at school, one contest for the boys and one for the girls. The boys are to draw cars and the girls dresses. A couple of days before the contest winner is announced, Wanda doesn’t come to school. She continues to be absent until the day of the announcement. Upon arriving at school on this day, the class is amazed to see a plethora of stunning dress drawings hanging in the room. It is announced that Wanda has won the girls’ contest, but a letter soon follows to the class that Wanda and her family have moved to the city because of the cruel way they were treated.

Maddie and Peggy both feel sorry about the way they treated Wanda. They walk to her home that night to let her know about winning the contest, but all of the belongings are gone from Wanda’s home. Feeling heavy about the situation, Maddie and Peggy write Wanda a letter in hopes that the post office can forward it to her.

A couple of months later, Maddie and Peggy’s teacher receives a letter from Wanda. Wanda says that she misses her old school and she wants Peggy and Maddie to have two of her drawings. Maddie and Peggy take this to mean that Wanda received their letter and she forgives them. Maddie and Peggy realize that the drawings Wanda drew look just like them.

Reading Level: Ages 6-9
Read Aloud Age: 5+

This Newbery Honor Book was written in 1944, but is still very relevant today. The story is short, but the impact is profound. Teasing someone or standing by silently are situations our children are almost guaranteed to find themselves in at some point in their life. The author does an excellent job of getting into Maddie’s mind about how standing by and watching someone being bullied is almost just as wrong. “She was a coward. At least Peggy hadn’t considered they were being mean, but she, Maddie, had thought they were doing wrong…But she had done just as much as Peggy to make life miserable for Wanda by simply standing by and saying nothing. She helped to make someone so unhappy that she had had to move away from town.”

Although as an independent read this might appeal more to girls, it could certainly be read aloud to both boys and girls. The lesson of standing by and doing nothing when bullying is occurring applies to all children (and adults!). While there are no spiritual subjects addressed in this book, repentance and forgiveness are clear themes.

Because it was written in the 1940’s, there may be a few things that are lost culturally or need explaining- like the reason Wanda’s boots are always muddy is that she lived on the “wrong” side of town with no sidewalks. I don’t love the way Wanda’s scary old neighbor, Mr. Svenson, is portrayed (more on that below), but overall this could be a great book for the right child.

Language:
dumb (questioning Wanda’s intelligence), queer (in the original meaning)

Other Things to Know:
Description of Mr. Svenson: “Somebody said once that old man Svenson had shot a man. Others said, ‘Nonsense! He’s an old good-for-nothing.'”
He is also described as chewing and spitting tobacco juice.

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