The Hundred Dresses
{{Short description|Book by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = The Hundred Dresses
| image = File:The Hundred Dresses.jpg
| caption = Cover with original design (post-1970, with "Newbery Honor" seal)
| author = Eleanor Estes
| illustrator = Louis Slobodkin
| cover_artist = Slobodkin
| country = Australia
| genre = Children's literature, realistic fiction
| media_type = Print (hardcover)
| isbn = 978-0-15-332975-3
| oclc = 906047056
}}
The Hundred Dresses is a children's book by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, published in 1944. In the book, a Polish girl named Wanda Petronski attends a Connecticut school where the other children see her as "different" and mock her.{{Cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-hundred-dresses/chapanal006.html#gsc.tab=0|title=The Hundred Dresses Summary}}
Plot summary
The book centers on Wanda, a poor and friendless Polish-American girl. Although her grades are very good, she sits in the worst seat in the classroom and does not say anything when her schoolmates tease her. One day, after Wanda's classmates laugh at her Polish last name and the faded blue dress she wears to school every day, Wanda claims to own one hundred dresses, all lined up in her closet in her worn-down house. This outrageous and obvious lie becomes a game, and the group of girls in her class, headed by Maddie and Peggy, mock and corner her every day before school demanding that she describe all of her dresses for them. Her father, Jan Petronski, reveals that due to the constant discrimination directed at his family they must leave town.
The teacher holds a drawing contest in which the girls are to draw dresses of their own design. Wanda enters and submits one hundred beautiful designs. Her classmates are in awe of her talent and realize that these were her hundred dresses thus leading the students to believe Wanda. The students who teased her feel remorse and want her to know this, but they are not sure how. They decide to write her a kind letter and send it to her old address, hoping the post office can forward it. Unfortunately, she has already moved away and does not realize she won the contest.Kathleen T. Horning, Association for Library Service to Children, The Newbery & Caldecott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Honor Books, Chicago: American Library Association, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-8389-9717-8}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6pujShjG1YkC&dq=The+Hundred+Dresses&pg=PA68 p. 68].
Nevertheless, Wanda's lovely nature, kind heart, and forgiveness are revealed later when she tells the teacher to give the students the drawings.
Reception
The Hundred Dresses was a 1945 Newbery Honor book.{{cite web |url= http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal |title= Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present |author= American Library Association |date= 30 November 1999 |access-date=January 12, 2015}} A 2004 study found that it was a common read-aloud book for third-graders in schools in San Diego County, California.{{cite journal |author=Fisher, Douglas |year=2004 |title=Interactive Read-Alouds: Is There a Common Set of Implementation Practices? |journal=The Reading Teacher |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=8–17 |url=http://www.fisherandfrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/rt-read-alouds.pdf |access-date=August 22, 2012 |doi=10.1598/RT.58.1.1 |display-authors=etal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207031123/http://www.fisherandfrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/rt-read-alouds.pdf |archive-date=December 7, 2013 }} Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."{{cite web |url= http://www.nea.org/grants/13154.htm/ |title= Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children |author= National Education Association |year= 2007|access-date=August 22, 2012}}
Ewa Thompson, professor of Slavic studies at Rice University, argued in a 2020 New Oxford Review article that the book perpetuates negative stereotypes about Polish-Americans.{{cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Ewa |title=Lives That Don't Matter |url=https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/lives-that-dont-matter/ |website=New Oxford Review |access-date=21 December 2023}}
References
{{Reflist |30em |refs=
[https://lccn.loc.gov/44008963 "The Hundred Dresses"] [1944]. LC Online Catalog. Library of Congress. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/eleanor-estes-4/the-hundred-dresses/ "The Hundred Dresses"] (starred review). Kirkus Reviews. Contemporary; undated online, with later ISBN. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
"This is off the track for the creator of The Moffats [also illus. by Slobodkin], but it is a story that might well be told to all generations."
}}
External links
{{Portal |Children's literature}}The Hundred Dresses at archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hundred Dresses, The}}
Category:1944 children's books
Category:Newbery Honor–winning works
Category:American children's novels
Category:Novels set in elementary and primary schools
Category:Novels set in Connecticut
Category:Children's books set in Connecticut