The Hundred Dresses

The Hundred Dresses is a 1944 children's book by Eleanor Estes. In the book, a
Polish girl named Wanda Petronski attends a Connecticut school where the other
children see her as "different" and mock her.
The book centres on Wanda Petronski, a poor and
friendless Polish-American girl. Although outwardly kind,
puts Wanda 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 funny 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
describes 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. 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.
Nevertheless, Wanda's lovely nature and kind heart are
revealed later when she tells the teacher to give the students
the drawings

What Did We Understand?

The main theme of the story is about the act of
forgiveness. In this story, Wanda forgives her
classmates who used to bully her for her weird name
and her story about The hundred dresses
Smile is the most powerful weapon in the
(By the way I seriously don’t know who said these
words)

“Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa

(Of course I know who said these Beautiful words)