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by: Eleanor Estes
Amazon.com's Price: $7.00 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780152052607
ISBN: 0152052607
Label: Harcourt Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 96
Publication Date: September 01, 2004
Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Sales Rank: 4932
Studio: Harcourt Paperbacks
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Never out of print since its 1944 publication, this tender story offers readers of all ages a timeless message of compassion and understanding. At its heart is Wanda Petronski, an immigrant girl in an American school, who is ridiculed for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. When she tells her classmates that she has one hundred dresses at home, she unwittingly triggers a game of teasing that eventually ends in a lesson for all.
In restoring the reproduction of Louis Slobodkin's artwork, this new edition recaptures the original vivid color. And to celebrate the book's enhanced beauty, Helena Estes, the daughter of the author, has written a new letter to readers about the true story behind The Hundred Dresses.
Amazon.com:
Wanda Petronski lives way up in shabby Boggins Heights, and she doesn't have any friends. Every day she wears a faded blue dress, which wouldn't be too much of a problem if she didn't tell her schoolmates that she had a hundred dresses at home--all silk, all colors, and velvet, too. This lie--albeit understandable in light of her dress-obsessed circle--precipitates peals of laughter from her peers, and she never hears the end of it. One day, after Wanda has been absent from school for a few days, the teacher receives a note from Wanda's father, a Polish immigrant: 'Dear teacher: My Wanda will not come to your school any more. Jake also. Now we move away to big city. No more holler Polack. No more ask why funny name. Plenty of funny names in the big city. Yours truly, Jan Petronski.'
Maddie, a girl who had stood by while Wanda was taunted about her dresses, feels sick inside: 'True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing.... She was a coward.... She had helped to make someone so unhappy that she had had to move away from town.' Repentant, Maddie and her friend Peggy head up to Boggins Heights to see if the Petronskis are still there. When they discover the house is empty, Maddie despairs: 'Nothing would ever seem good to her again, because just when she was about to enjoy something--like going for a hike with Peggy to look for bayberries or sliding down Barley Hill--she'd bump right smack into the thought that she had made Wanda Petronski move away.' Ouch. This gentle Newbery Honor Book convincingly captures the deeply felt moral dilemmas of childhood, equally poignant for the teased or the tormentor. Louis Slobodkin, illustrator of the 1944 Caldecott Medalist Many Moons, brings his wispy, evocative, color-washed sketches to Eleanor Estes's time-proven classic about kindness, compassion, and standing up for what's right. (Ages 6 and older) --Karin Snelson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Wonderful Story
This was a great book with a perfect lesson about bullying. I read it with my daughters aged 5, 7 and 9. They really got the lesson.
Rating:  - Disappointing
This book has a lot of build up surrounding the dresses... are they real, imaginary, did she make them, buy them, or inherit them? Teasing from the main character's peers made me as the reader wait in suspense to find out what the dresses really were and to look forward to the girl standing up for herself. When we finally find out about the dresses, however, I found it to be a bit anticlimactic with very little resolution to the issues of bullying, teasing, gossiping, and stereotyping. Not impressed ... Read More
Rating: - A Subtle Teaching Message
Estes, Eleanor, author. Slobodkin, Louis, illustrator. (1972). The Hundred Dresses
A Realistic Fiction story. Small chapter book. It is a Newberry Honor book.
Ending somewhat sadly with no real resolution, this story tells the problems faced by many young school girls. Wanda and Peggy are worlds apart. Wanda is a poor girl with no mother and Peggy is a rich girl with everything she wants. In between is Maggie, a girl who wants to relate with Peggy, but sees her life more like Wanda's. ... Read More
Rating: - A powerful, direct antidote to racism and prejudice
When she was young --- this was almost a century ago --- Eleanor Estes went to school with a Polish girl who was so poor that she wore the same dress every day. Kids are cruel; the girl got teased. And then she moved away.
In 1944, Eleanor Estes took that memory and turned it into The Hundred Dresses, a short novel --- 80 big-print pages, with many illustrations --- for children. It was named a Newberry Honor Book. It has never gone out of print.
Unlike children's book authors who ... Read More
Rating:  - The Hundred Dresses
Every child at one time or another has been teased or mocked by other children, particularly in public schools. Those of us who have witnessed it, suffered it, or may have even done it, will remember the experience as painful, humiliating, and regrettable. The Hundred Dresses helps children see from another child's perspective this damaging behavior. Even thought this story was written over six decades ago, the materialistic theme of judging others by their clothing is still prevalent today. Throughout the story, ... Read More
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