The Hundred Dresses - Module 2

THE HUNDRED DRESSES
By Eleanor Estes


Published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1944)
ISBN 9780153329753
Grades 3-6








Tale

A poor young immigrant girl with an unusual and long name is the main character of this story. Teased by her classmates for wearing the same aged blue dress every day, Wanda becomes tormented by them when she replies, affirming to have hundred beautiful dresses hanging in her closet. Although without anybody to defend her or help her to feel welcome or appreciated, Wanda teaches them all a very important lesson about prejudice and friendship that nobody will ever forget.

Thoughts

This Newbery Honor book has a great story with a very important moral message. In print since 1944, this plot has delighted readers of all ages. A note by the author’s daughter, Helena Estes, about the truth behind the story has been added to its last edition. I liked the book very much and would easily recommend it to different ages.

Review

BookPage Reviews 2004 November

Website: http://www.bookpage.com
Setting things right

"Eleanor Estes earned a Newbery Honor in 1945 for The Hundred Dresses, the story of a little immigrant girl named Wanda who wears the same dress to school every day. When she gets tired of being teased, she tells her classmates that her closet at home contains 100 dresses. This "restored" edition brings the delicate lines and colors of Louis Slobodkin's art to life.

There's also a new letter to readers from Helena Estes about how her mother came to write this classic (these background notes are always fascinating). It turns out that the author was inspired by a girl in her own class who always wore the same dress and was teased, and then moved away. Helena Estes explains that her mother never had a chance to apologize: "What could she do so many years later, my mother wondered, to set things right—to reach out to the girl who had stood lonely and silent against the red brick wall of the school? Well, she thought, the one thing she could do was to write her story."

Why does our school district pick such a book for required reading, one so seemingly a "girl's story"? It's a splendid tale—that's why—and a grand lesson on teasing, bullying and forgiveness.

Alice Cary writes from Groton, Massachusetts. Copyright 2004 BookPage Reviews."

About the author and the illustrator:

ELEANOR ESTES (1906-1988), a children's librarian for many years, launched her writing career with the publication of The Moffats in 1941. Two of her books about the Moffats are Newbery Honor Books, as is The Hundred Dresses. She won the Newbery Medal for Ginger Pye in 1952. LOUIS SLOBODKIN (1903-1975) illustrated more than ninety books for children, many of which he also wrote. Among his most enduring illustrations are those for the Moffats series by Eleanor Estes, and those for James Thurber's Many Moons, for which Slobodkin received the 1944 Caldecott Medal. HELENA ESTES, the daughter of the author, is a children's librarian and a former bookseller. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Activity Ask students to choose one passage from the book in which they believe Maddie should act different. In groups of four, students will discuss which passage they chose and how the character Maddie acted in their version.