The Hundred Dresses [Paperback]

Estes' perceptive take on the effect of cliques of popular girls and the influence they wield was ahead of its time. The relationships between the girls echoes what we read today in books like "Odd Girl Out" and "Queen Bees and Wannabes." Peggy, an Alpha Girl if there ever was one, ridicules Wanda's foreigness and the shabby blue dress (her only dress) that she washes and irons each night to wear the next day. Maddie, Peggy's wannabe friend, is troubled by Peggy's insensitivity but is afraid to speak up. Maddie's afraid that Peggy might turn on her, too. Then, Wanda stops coming to school. The other children forget about Wanda, but Maddie still thinks about her and wonders what happened to her. She persuades Peggy to go visit Wanda's house on the wrong side of the tracks; the part of town where the poor people and "foreigners" live. Wanda has moved away to a larger city, but the experience of knowing Wanda has changed Maddie for the better. She's more independent and willing to question Peggy and the values she represents. She's more open and empathetic to the experiences of people from different and less fortunate backgrounds than her.

And what becomes of Wanda? In this book's wonderfully ingenious ending, Wanda takes her poverty and marginalization and turns to a creative end. Wanda, so poor that she only owns one dress, paints pictures of a hundred dresses and sends them back to the class at her old school. Wanda refuses to be victimized by her classmate's ridicule. Instead, she becomes an artist! I loved this ending as a child; it shows how children can overcome their problems with imagination and a respect for their own inner lives.

Louis Slobodkin's illustrations complement the story perfectly (he also collaborated with Estes on the Moffat books). His evocative artwork supplies just the right amount of detail and leaves the rest to the reader's imagination. This is a truly great work of children's literature and we should rejoice that it's still in print.

(...) Of course it is an ugly story; it is also realistic. Children do treat one another that way; adults do too. As another reviewer pointed out, although the little Polish girl is not stated explicitly to be Jewish, it is very much a Holocaust story; although she is definately not African-American, it is a Civil Rights story; although she is (probably) not a Lesbian, it is a gay-bashing story. It is the story of anyone who is put upon because she/he is or is percieved as 'different', and how this sort of thing can only go on when good people stand by and do nothing.

Of the two other little girls in the story, the one who makes fun of the poor Polish girl and the other who stands by and doesn't want to defend her (although she knows she should)--how do you think they feel at the end of the story? Will they do it again? And, what if later 'the shoe is on the other foot', and they find themselves victims?

Every child will be able to identify with each of the children in the story, and the story can be a starting point for discussions of prejudice, bullying, and many other important moral topics. The book doesn't give pat answers, nor does it tell us what to think--but it gives us an opportunity to think about these things.