The Hundred Dresses

Don't acquire preemptive notions about a book just by seeing its cover and title! This book (and the title) seems like it is going to be a story of a hundred dresses, but if you read this book, you will know that it is about bullying. An even more surprising fact is that the author is one of the mean girls in this story who had offered support to the bully and this book was the result of her repentance of that incident!

Title: The Hundred Dresses

Author: Eleanor Estes

Illustration: Louis Slobodkin

Publisher: Clarion Books

Wanda Petronski was a poor Polish girl who lived with her father and brother in the very poorest part of the town. She had only one faded blue dress to wear to school every day. When all the girls were admiring their classmate's new crimson dress, Wanda announced that she had a hundred dresses at home. Everyone was surprised; they wanted to know why Wanda never wore any of them to school. Wanda responded that she only wears them for parties; her friends even thought that Wanda didn't wear them as she was afraid of getting ink or chalk on them from school. And so began a teasing game about Wanda's one hundred dresses!

However, Wanda moved out of town into a bigger city hoping that she would not be teased anymore. Her friends went to Wanda's home to apologize, but it was too late!

🌈 This might be an older book but this is a story full of feelings of sympathy, empathy, and moral responsibilities.

🌈 This encourages the kids to think about what it is like to be different racially, ethnically, or socially from others, and how it affects you.

🌈 It is really important to note that the mean girls realized their mistake and decided to repent. Friendship is all about forgiving and forgetting!

🌈 This can be classified as a middle-grade read, suitable for kids mostly 8+

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