The Hundred Dresses is a 1944 children's book by Eleanor Estes

Eleanor Estes

Eleanor Estes was an American children's author.She was born in West Haven, Connecticut as Eleanor Ruth Rosenfield.She worked as a children's librarian in New Haven, Connecticut, and New York....

, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin

Louis Slobodkin

Louis Slobodkin , born in Albany, New York was a sculptor, author and illustrator of numerous children's books....

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Plot

The book centers on Wanda Petronski, a poor and friendless Polish-American girl. Her teacher, outwardly kind, puts her in the worst seat in the schoolroom and does not intervene when her schoolmates tease her. One day, after her 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 at her worn down house. This outrageous and obvious lie becomes a game, as the girls in her class corner her every day before school, demanding that she describe for them all of her dresses.
She is mocked, and eventually, her father, Mr. Petronski decides that she must leave that school.