The Hundred Dresses
by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin
“The Hundred Dresses” by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. A timeless and heartfelt story of a little Polish girl who teaches her classmates the meaning of kindness and generosity of spirit.
The story takes place in West Haven, Connecticut sometime around the World War I. Wanda Petronski is Polish. She wears the same faded blue dress to school everyday. Yet she tells her classmates confidently that she has a hundred dresses of all kinds lined up in her closet. She has no friends. Everyone finds her name funny and ignores her. She lives with her father and brother in Boggins Heights which is an area avoided by most people. Nobody believes that she has so many dresses. Why would she wear the same dress then!
When Peggy starts a daily game of teasing Wanda about her hundred dresses, everyone joins in. Maddie who is Peggy’s best friend goes along with the game. She starts feeling bad about the game but isn’t able to do anything about it. She lacks the courage to call out Peggy’s bullying as she is afraid of becoming her next target. She is not able to accept that her best friend could be so bad at heart and not feel sorry for Wanda. Peggy herself doesn’t know that she is hurting Wanda by her game. She feels that Wanda is dumb and doesn’t understand the sarcasm. She is just having fun with the game.
All of a sudden Wanda stops coming to school. What happens to her? Do her classmates ever get to know the truth about her hundred dresses? Does Wanda feel bad by the game of the hundred dresses? Why is it that she bears the game every day? Do Maddie and Peggy realise their mistakes? If so, what will they do? Can they ever admit to Wanda that they did not do it on purpose? What will the two of them learn from this incident in their lives? Read this classic to find out.
The book has a letter to readers from the author’s daughter Helena Estes. She mentions that the story is based on true incidents from her mother’s childhood. The author could well have been Maddie. The illustrations are stunning and have been restored by Caldecott Medalist Louis Slobodkin.
My seven year old was deeply moved by the story and so was I. This is one of those MUST READS! It is going to remain in our memories for a long time undoubtedly. No wonder the book has been a beloved classic for more than sixty years now. The message of compassion and understanding is so apt even for the current times. Apt for children aged 7/8 and above.