Customer Reviews

The Hundred Dresses

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This story about Wanda Petronski, an immigrant girl from a poor family ridiculed by her more popular, wealthier and American-born classmates is as relevant to children today as when it was first published. I read and re-read this book as a child; like Wanda, I was the only one in my class with a funny-sounding Eastern European last name. Fortunately, my situation was not as dire as hers, but I felt Wanda and I were kindred souls.

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.

(...)
An incredibly ugly depiction of a little Polish girl and her classmates making fun of her. Promotes the stereotypical "Dumb Pollack" without showing any betterment of the little girl's situation. I found this book very offensive. I had ordered it as a gift for a little girl, but this book is wildy inappropriate in that there is no moral resolution at the end. The tormenters get away with their harassment, and there is only suffering for the Polish girl. The only thing it would teach a child is that you can get away with being bigoted and rude to others. Too bad Amazon doesn't allow for a zero rating because this because deserves it. "

(...) 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.

Wanda, who has no mother and lives with her father, wears the same dress to school but claims she has 100 beautiful dresses in her closet at home. She is teased by other students. Wanda moves away and the truth behind her hundred dresses is revealed. Is it too late to make amends?
(...)

My eight-year old son was given 'The Hundred Dresses' as a vacation book report assignment. Wanda Petronski was laughed at at school for her name, for her faded blue dress that didn't hang right and for offsetting her poverty by tales of her hundred dresses at home. But her dress was always clean, washed daily herself because she had no mother and often it would not be dry by next morning. There was a drawing competition and Wanda submitted 100 drawings of her dresses and she won the girls' prize. But by the time of the announcement of the winners Wanda had been moved to the city because of the teasing. Some deep soul searching was triggered in a concerned classmate whose life was changed for ever as she realized that her passive role had contributed to Wanda's fate. Every child should write a report on this book and its deeper meaning.

My eight-year old son was given 'The Hundred Dresses' as a vacation book report assignment. Wanda Petronski was laughed at at school for her name, for her faded blue dress that didn't hang right and for offsetting her poverty by tales of her hundred dresses at home. But her dress was always clean, washed daily herself because she had no mother and often it would not be dry by next morning. There was a drawing competition and Wanda submitted 100 drawings of her dresses and she won the girls' prize. But by the time of the announcement of the winners Wanda had been moved to the city because of the teasing. Some deep soul searching was triggered in a concerned classmate whose life was changed for ever as she realized that her passive role had contributed to Wanda's fate. Every child should write a report on this book and its deeper meaning.

Every kid who has ever stood by and watched another kid be teased, or been a victim of a bully, or been a bully, and every one else in between should read this book. Wanda Petronski, a poor Polish kid who lives in the poor part of the neighborhood, and wears the same old faded dress each day, announces to her classmates one morning that she has a hundred dresses and matching shoes all lined up in her closet. This starts the dresses games, where Peggy, each chance she gets, mockingly asks Wanda questions about her dresses, as Maddie stands by and watches uncomfortably. Maddie feels guilty for not stopping the teasing, but she is afraid that she will lose Peggy's friendship, or worse, that Peggy will start to tease her, as she is also poor. One day, Peggy and Maddie notice that Wanda is not in school. Then their teacher reads a letter from Wanda's father that says that the Petronskis have moved to the city where they will not be made fun of for being Polish or having a funny name. The girls feel even worse when their teacher announces that the winner of a class contest is none other than Wanda Petronski, and they set out to find Wanda and apologize to her. The best part of the book is when it describes Maddie's feelings: on the one hand, she feels guilty for standing by and letting Peggy pick on a girl who has never harmed anyone, and on the other hand, she is afraid to say anything to Peggy for fear of being teased herself. At the end of the book, Maddie decides that she will never again stand by and watch someone get teased.

I first read this book as a girl more than 40 years ago, and I still love it.

I've noticed something about this book that many reviews (and many of the lesson plans I've read) seem to miss, and I think it's an important point: This isn't the story of Wanda Petronski. It's the story of Maddie, an ordinary person who quietly assents to evil and then must live with her conscience. It's very tough stuff for young readers (and older ones), both deep and dark. I remember my own daughters finding it to be rough going emotionally, because Maddie's epiphany comes when the possibility of redemption is past, leaving her only with regret. This is unusual in children's fiction (and adults'), where the norm is for the central character--the character with whom the reader identifies--to be granted a second chance to make the compassionate choice. Estes quite deliberately, and, I think, properly, gave the book a real-life ending, where understanding occurs after the moment of truth has irretrievably gone by, and we realize that the next step, the step that occurs after the end of the story, is for the character and, by extension, the reader, to decide how to live her life from that point on.

Wanda is not, as far as we know, a Jew, but this is nevertheless a Holocaust story, as well as a Civil Rights story, a story about tolerance and compassion but also a story about how evil flourishes when people of good will do not speak out.

Estes is kind enough to her characters to allow Wanda the spirit and determination to rise above the rejection of her classmates, and to allow her to gracefully (but incorrectly) attribute the best of motives to Maddie and Peggy. In a way, though, her nobility makes Maddie's enlightenment even more bitter. Somehow, having our victims respond badly to our victimizing lets us off the hook: "She was a nasty person anyway." (I'll have to admit, part of me has always wondered if Wanda was being disingenuous or sarcastic in her final note. Was she deliberately putting the screws on Maddie and Peggy?)

This book is extraordinarily and deceptively powerful, with its combination of quiet tone, enchanting pictures, and hard-hitting (but not overbearing) message. Girls will be particularly intrigued and inspired by the dresses themselves; the idea is compelling, and many will want to draw their own dresses. Most children will, I think, want to focus on that aspect of the story, rather than on Maddie's learning experience. The dresses are so liberating, both for Wanda and for the child's imagination, that parents and teachers will want to encourage young readers to rejoice in that aspect of the story, even as they guide them through the sad and difficult emotional concepts presented in this lovely, but heartrending, book.

The Hundred Dresses is a good book for people of all ages.This is a good book especially for youngsters. People will learn a lot when they read this book and they will treasure it. When you read this book, you will learn that it is important what is on the inside, not the outside. I learned that if we meet someone that doesn't have the things we have, then we shouldn't treat them badly. We should treat all people with kindness.

by Evan Feldman

The book is about a girl named Wanda Petronski, who went to a new school and was teased a lot because she was different from other kids. She was very poor and didn't have a lot of different clothes. She told other girls she had 100 dresses in her closet and was teased for that a lot. Later Wanda's father decided to move to a big city where people don't pay attention to little things like weird last name and don't tease you for that. After Wanda left the school her schoolmates found out that she was a very talented and caring person. I liked how Eleanor Estes, the author of the book, described what two girls, Maddie and Peggy, felt after Wanda moved to another school. I thought it was a great book because it taught me not to tease anybody because of differences in culture, religion or size of their wallets. I would recommend my friends to read this book.

A child is being made fun of by schoolmates. Another child stays quiet, uncomfortable with the situation. She is fearful that if she says anything, she will become a target. Eventually all the kids realize that they have acted badly, but it's too late to make restitution as the "victim" has moved away. Gives a great moral message without being preachy.