The Hundred Dresses: A Novella by Eleanor Estes

Estes, E., & Slobodkin, L. (1944). The hundred dresses.

The Hundred Dresses (novella, teacher led and independent, below grade level)

The classic novella “The Hundred Dresses” is 96 pages and is slightly below grade level. This book is written at a 4th grade reading level and it’s Lexile Level is 870L. This book is about Wanda Petronski, a Polish school girl who is teased by her classmates for wearing the same dress to school everyday. Wanda tells her classmates that she has one hundred dresses at home but none of the students believe her. Students bully Wanda until she is pulled out of school. Maddie, one of Wanda’s classmates, feels terrible and realizes that bullying a classmate because of her appearance was wrong. The class learns a valuable lesson about standing up and treating others with respect, even though it is too late for them to apologize to Wanda. This book was written in 1945, at the end of World War II and the Holocaust. The teacher could tie in how extreme bullying and racism played a role during this time in history. Even though these are complex and horrific topics, students can benefit from learning lessons from history at an early age.

Having students compare and contrast the characters in “Wonder” with the characters in “The Hundred Dresses” addresses the CCSS. ELA-LITERACY. RL.5.3 standard. This standard asks students to, "compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact)”. Teacher will ask students to compare and contrast the students in each story and the teacher can lead a class discussion on the similarities and differences in each book. Students can reflect on how Summer and Jack stood up for Auggie in “Wonder” and how would the story be different if Maddie had stood up for Wanda in “The Hundred Dresses”?