Five-minute digest

The Hundred Dresses

Eleanor Estes

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.

Top 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.
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Too late to say sorry in person
By the time the class learns the truth about the hundred dresses, Wanda is gone. Peggy and Maddie climb Boggins Heights and find an empty house. The book teaches that the chance to make things right can pass, so kindness should not be put off.
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Answering unkindness with a gift
Wanda could have stayed silent or sent an angry letter. Instead she writes warmly and asks that the two girls who teased her most be given drawings, with their own faces. Her gift shows forgiveness, and it changes Maddie more than any scolding could.
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The hundred dresses were real
The girls laughed because they thought Wanda was lying. In a way she was telling the truth: the dresses existed in her drawings, made with skill and care. The story asks readers to look past a faded dress and an unfamiliar name to the gifts a quiet person may have.
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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.

The Hundred Dresses

Summary

Top Lessons

Silence can be a wrong too

Too late to say sorry in person

Answering unkindness with a gift

The hundred dresses were real

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens