Work record

The Hundred Dresses

Eleanor Estes

1944 · Early 20th Century · Novella · English

Abstract

Written: 1944
Setting: Early twentieth century, from autumn to Christmas of one school year; A small Connecticut town: its grammar school and the poor district of Boggins Heights
Author: Eleanor Estes
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Realistic school story for young readers
Form: Short novel in seven chapters, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin
Recommended: Grades 3–5

Background. A former children's librarian, Estes drew on a remorseful memory from her own West Haven girlhood and wrote this slim book three years after her first Moffat novel; it appeared in wartime with pictures by Slobodkin, that year's Caldecott medalist.

Plot. An immigrant's daughter from the edge of town, ridiculed each morning for boasting of a closetful of gowns, quietly stops attending class. Her absence sets the narrator's friend recalling the taunts she joined by laughing. An art competition then reveals a wall of extraordinary costume sketches, and a note from the absent girl's father explains that the family has moved away for good. A fruitless visit to the vacant house, a letter of apology, and a gracious holiday reply complete the story.

Structure. After an opening absence, two chapters of flashback rebuild the teasing, so the contest's revelation lands on a reader who already shares the bystander's guilt.

Themes. The guilt of those who watch and laugh without speaking, the hidden gifts of the poor and unfamiliar, remorse that arrives too late for face-to-face amends, and forgiveness offered without being asked.

Significance. A 1945 Newbery Honor Book, it remains among the most widely read American stories about bullying, valued for refusing an easy reconciliation.

Main characters

Wanda Petronski: Shy, gifted girl mocked for her one dress and her name
Maddie: Silent onlooker through whose conscience the story is told
Peggy: Popular ringleader of the daily questioning
Miss Mason: Teacher who judges the art contest and reads both letters
Jan Petronski: Wanda's father, who takes the family to the city
Jack Beggles: Winner of the boys' prize for boat designs

Summary

The Hundred Dresses is a short novel in seven chapters about a girl who is teased at school and the classmate who watched and said nothing. Wanda Petronski, the daughter of a Polish immigrant, Jan Petronski, lives with her father and brother Jake in a shabby house on Boggins Heights, outside a small Connecticut town. In Room Thirteen she sits in the back corner with the rough boys, wears the same faded blue dress every day, and says little. One Monday in November she does not come to school, and Maddie, the story's point-of-view character, begins to remember why that matters. Weeks earlier, while the girls were admiring Cecile's new red dress, Wanda suddenly said she had a hundred dresses at home, all lined up in her closet. From then on Peggy, the most popular girl in the class, and her best friend Maddie stopped Wanda on the way to school each morning to ask how many dresses and shoes she owned, and laughed at her answers. Maddie, whose own clothes are Peggy's cast-offs remade by her mother, disliked the game but kept quiet for fear of being teased herself. Then Miss Mason announces the winners of the drawing contest. Jack Beggles wins for the boys' motorboat designs, and Wanda wins for the girls with one hundred drawings of dresses, each different, which cover the classroom walls. Wanda is gone, though: a letter from her father tells the teacher the family is moving to the big city to escape the mockery of their name. Ashamed, Peggy and Maddie climb Boggins Heights after school and find the house empty. Maddie resolves never again to stand by while someone is picked on, and the girls write Wanda a friendly letter. At Christmas a reply comes asking that two of the drawings be given to Peggy and Maddie. At home Maddie sees that the face above the dress is her own. Published by Harcourt, Brace in 1944 with illustrations by Louis Slobodkin, it was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1945.

Virtues in this work

Charity: Wanda answers months of mockery by asking that her drawings be given to Peggy and Maddie, the two girls who teased her most.
Humility: Maddie admits to herself that her silent laughter helped drive Wanda away, instead of excusing herself as Peggy does.
Fortitude: Maddie resolves after the empty house on Boggins Heights that she will speak up the next time anyone is picked on, even at the risk of being teased herself.

Plot or Argument

Chapter 1: Wanda
On a Monday Wanda Petronski's seat in the back corner of Room Thirteen is empty. Peggy and Maddie notice, because they were late waiting for her, and Maddie wonders what has happened to the quiet girl from Boggins Heights.
Chapter 2: The Dresses Game
Maddie recalls how the game began: the girls admiring Cecile's new red dress, Wanda's sudden claim to a hundred dresses at home, and Peggy's daily questions about dresses and shoes, asked with mock politeness while the others laughed.
Chapter 3: A Bright Blue Day
Maddie remembers the last morning of the game and her own discomfort. Her family is poor and she wears Peggy's old clothes remade by her mother. She thinks of asking Peggy to stop but is afraid she would become the next target.
Chapter 4: The Contest
Miss Mason reveals the winners of the drawing contest: Jack Beggles for the boys and Wanda for the girls, whose hundred brilliant dress designs line the room. Then the teacher reads a letter from Wanda's father saying the family has left for the big city and will not return.
Chapters 5-6: The Hundred Dresses; Up on Boggins Heights
Maddie cannot stop thinking about Wanda. After school she and Peggy go to Boggins Heights, Peggy insisting she never meant harm, and find the Petronski house empty. That night Maddie decides she will never again stand by and say nothing, and the girls write Wanda a friendly letter.
Chapter 7: The Letter to Room 13
No answer comes for weeks. At Christmas Miss Mason reads Wanda's letter to the class: she has new dresses in her new home and wants Peggy and Maddie to have two of her drawings. Holding hers, Maddie sees that Wanda drew her face, and she weeps.

Characters

Wanda Petronski, title figure
Quiet Polish-American girl from Boggins Heights who claims a hundred dresses and turns out to have drawn them.
Maddie (Madeline), protagonist and point-of-view character
Peggy's best friend, poor herself, who joins the teasing in silence and later resolves to speak up.
Peggy, Maddie's friend
Pretty, popular girl who leads the dresses game and insists she meant no harm.
Miss Mason, teacher of Room Thirteen
Runs the drawing contest, reads Mr. Petronski's letter and later Wanda's reply to the class.
Jan Petronski, Wanda's father
Immigrant father who moves the family to the city and writes to the teacher to explain why.
Jake Petronski, Wanda's brother
Older brother who also leaves the school when the family moves.
Cecile, classmate
Girl whose new red dress the class admires on the day Wanda first mentions her hundred dresses.
Jack Beggles, classmate
Wins the boys' half of the drawing contest with motorboat designs.

Lessons

Silence can be a wrong too
Maddie never asks Wanda a cruel question herself. She only stands with Peggy and laughs, and the book makes plain that this was part of what drove Wanda away. Her resolution never again to stand by and say nothing is the moral turn of the story.
- Maddie never teased Wanda with words. Did she still do something wrong? Why?
- Why was Maddie afraid to tell Peggy to stop?
- What could Maddie have done on that bright blue morning instead of laughing?
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Context

The story takes place in a small Connecticut town in the early twentieth century, when many families from Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe had settled in the factory and farm towns of New England. Families like the Petronskis often lived at the poor edge of town, and children with long, unfamiliar surnames could stand out in a schoolroom. Estes knew such towns well: she grew up in West Haven, the model for the Cranbury of her Moffat books.

Composition

Estes based the story on her own childhood memory of a classmate who was teased and of her own failure to speak up, and she later described the book as a kind of atonement. Harcourt, Brace published it in 1944, during the Second World War, with illustrations by Louis Slobodkin, who had won the Caldecott Medal that same year for Many Moons.

Reception

The book was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1945 and has stayed in print ever since. It became a standard read-aloud for children around the third and fourth grades, and the National Education Association included it in its 2007 list of teachers' top one hundred books for children. A later edition restored Slobodkin's illustrations in their full original colors.

Childhood Class / Society Guilt Sin Virtue Ethics Art / Creation Isolation / Alienation Friendship Home Exile

Comparisons

the-moffats
Estes's first book draws on the same Connecticut childhood and the same sympathy for a poor family, but where the Moffats are warm insiders in their town, Wanda is an outsider seen through a guilty classmate's eyes.
number-the-stars
Annemarie in Copenhagen and Maddie in Connecticut both learn that a friend's safety may depend on whether a bystander is willing to act; Lowry's story makes that choice a matter of life and death.
to-kill-a-mockingbird
For older readers, Harper Lee's novel returns to the child who learns to see a mocked neighbor rightly; Scout's discovery of Boo Radley's gifts parallels Maddie's discovery of Wanda's drawings.
anne-of-green-gables
Anne, too, arrives poor and plainly dressed, longs for pretty dresses, and is judged by classmates before they know her imagination; Montgomery lets her stay and win her place, which Wanda never gets the chance to do.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“I got a hundred dresses home.”

— Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, Chapter 2, "The Dresses Game" (1944 first edition; copyrighted).

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Frequently cited

“She was never going to stand by and say nothing again.”

— Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses, Chapter 6, "Up on Boggins Heights" (1944 first edition; copyrighted).

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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Wanda's faded blue dress. Notice every time it is described and how the other girls look at it.
Maddie's own clothes. Watch for where they come from and why that makes her nervous about the game.
The drawings on the walls in Chapter 4. Notice how the room and the class change when they appear.
The two letters: Mr. Petronski's in Chapter 4 and Wanda's in Chapter 7. Compare how each one sounds.

Key terms and names

Boggins Heights: The poor, muddy edge of town where Wanda's family lives. It is a long walk to school, so her shoes are often caked with mud.
Room Thirteen: Miss Mason's classroom, where Wanda sits in the back corner and where the drawings are displayed.
The dresses game: Peggy's daily teasing of Wanda, asking how many dresses and shoes she has and laughing at her answers.
Drawing contest: A class contest in which the girls design dresses and the boys design motorboats. Wanda wins with one hundred drawings.
Bystander: Someone who watches a wrong happen without helping or joining in. Maddie realizes she was one.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What did Wanda say that started the dresses game?
Comprehension Who won the drawing contest, and what had Wanda drawn?
Comprehension What did Peggy and Maddie find when they went up to Boggins Heights?
Interpretation Peggy said she never meant to hurt Wanda. Does it matter whether she meant to? Why?
Interpretation Why did Maddie feel worse than Peggy about what happened?
Interpretation Why might Wanda have said she had a hundred dresses in the first place?
Big Question What should you do if you see someone being picked on and you are afraid to speak up?

Faith Connections

James 4:17 (Scripture)
To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Maddie knew the game was wrong and said nothing, and the book shows her coming to see that silence as her own fault.
Romans 12:21 (Scripture)
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Wanda answers months of teasing with a friendly letter and a gift of her best drawings.
Proverbs 31:8 (Scripture)
Open thy mouth for the dumb. Wanda rarely speaks for herself, and Maddie's resolution is to speak for anyone who cannot.
1 Samuel 16:7 (Scripture)
Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. The class judged Wanda by her faded dress until the drawings showed what was in her.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Peggy teased Wanda and Maddie stood by and laughed. Wanda's family moved away because of such treatment, and only then did the class learn of her talent and kindness. Since the harm was done by the watchers as well as the teaser, and since it could no longer be undone in person, a person must speak up at the time. So staying silent while another is mocked is itself a wrong.

Rhetorical device: flashback. The book opens on the day Wanda is absent and then, in Chapters 2 and 3, goes back to show how the dresses game began, so readers feel Maddie's growing guilt before they learn the truth about the drawings.

Debate: Resolved: Maddie was as much to blame as Peggy for what happened to Wanda.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Write about Maddie. Explain what she did wrong, how she found out, and what she decided to do differently.

Comparison with The Moffats: Both books by Eleanor Estes are about families without much money in a Connecticut town. Compare Jane Moffat and Wanda Petronski: how does each girl's town treat her?

Medical Lens

No medical content. The book is a study of a child's conscience and of shame and remorse in a bystander, treated as moral rather than medical experience.

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Have each child design one dress (or one motorboat, as the boys did) on a sheet of paper, then hang all the designs together to see how a hundred different drawings could cover a classroom wall.
Fiction
Write the letter Peggy and Maddie sent to Wanda after they found her house empty.
Fiction
Tell the first day at her new school in the big city from Wanda's point of view.
Dialogue
Act out the morning in Chapter 3 twice: once as it happened, and once with Maddie speaking up to Peggy.