The Hundred Dresses

Wanda gets picked on by Peggy, the popular girl, and her friend, Madeline. Wanda's parents are Polish and very poor. She only has one dress and it is faded and wrinkled. She had no friends and when she comes school she is immediately picked on. It all started when Cecile came with a new dress. Everybody was admiring Cicile's new dress. Wanda joined the admirers. She loved Cicile's new dress. They asked Wanda how many dresses she had. Wanda told her classmates that she had one hundred dresses all lined up in her closet. She said there are pink ones, blue ones, green ones, and all kinds of other ones. The other girls didn't believe her because she always wore the same dress every day. After a few days Wanda was missing. Peggy and Maddie thought she was just sick. The next day the principal came in and gave the teacher a note. To find out what the note said and what happened to Wanda, Peggy and Madeline, read the book.

I felt like Wanda got left out of everything because she was poor. That made me feel sad. I wanted to help her. I like to help people and not make fun of them. My favorite part was when Peggy asked how many dresses Wanda had. She said a hundred. She didn't have one hundred real dresses. But she did draw one hundred dresses.

Peggy and Madeline were interesting. When they found out that Wanda was missing they went to the poor part of town to look for her. They felt bad for teasing Wanda. At the end of the story, they were changed. I get the feeling that they won't tease others like they teased Wanda.

This book relates to Winn Dixie. Both main characters don't have any friends. Both stories talk about how hard it is not to have any friends. Both stories make you want to treat people better.

I recommend this book to second graders and up especially if someone is getting picked on because Wanda gets picked on.