100 Dresses by Eleanor Estes

The book The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes was written in the 1940's and awarded a Newbury Honor in 1945.  It is nearly 74 years old now and I still decide to incorporate this short read into the beginning of the year when we kick off our Community Unit.

The story is about the main character Maddie who is best friends with the most popular girl in the school, Peggy. They tease a girl named Wanda Petronski when Wanda, who is clearly very poor, claims that she has one hundred dresses "lined up in her closet." The girls who have only seen Wanda in a worn and faded blue dress, decide to play along and pretend they believe her and ask her relentless questions about the 100 dresses.

This book is a great book to take a look at stereotypes, bullying, bystanders and so much more.  While all of these topics in and of themselves are enough for you to pick up the book and read it to your child or your class, there is one reason that I came across by mistake which makes this book an even more powerful teaching tool. 

One day while I was preparing to start this book with my students, I wondered about why Wanda Petronski just didn't tell the girls to get lost. I also noticed that Eleanor Estes had Wanda repeat the lines "Yes. One hundred dresses, all lined up in my closet," throughout the book. She was constantly described as stolid, showing no emotion at all.  I wanted to figure out why a girl who was so passionate about her 100 dresses didn't show more emotion when it was beyond clear that her classmates were making fun of her.  Then it dawned on me.  I think not only was Wanda an outcast because of being a poor Polish girl with a weird last name.  She was also an outcast because I suspect she was autistic.

This is the first story I have read that captures a character that seems to display many of the traits of autism well before autism was ever defined or became a disability known in most homes.  Wanda's disability was not in the forefront or on display in this book, she just comes across as a peculiar child who just wants to fit in with her classmates. It is only when we take what we know now about autism spectrum disorder and INFER what her behaviors mean can we see why in the end Wanda never actually realizes that she was never a part of the group at all.

If you haven't read it I encourage you to take a look!! It is worth a read and really opens up some amazing discussion with your students.