"BREAK A LEG "

The story is about a quiet and shy girl named Wanda Petronski, a Polish immigrant, who had come to America with her family. She attended school with American children who found her name to be strange and probably,  the weirdest in the classroom. This is because they all had easier names. She was poor and was always seen wearing a faded blue dress. Her classmates teased her because she claimed to have a hundred dresses “all lined up” in her closet albeit, always being seen wearing one. The ones who mainly teased her were the two best friends, Peggy and Maddie. Peggy was the most famous girl in school while anyone barely knew Wanda.

Peggy and Maddie used to wait for Wanda before school even if it meant getting late. Maddie, a poor girl herself did not like when Peggy made fun of Wanda. She feared that she could be next. She wanted Peggy to stop making fun of Wanda, but could not summon courage to face her as she feared she’d lose her best friend. However, Peggy’s intention was never to hurt Wanda but she was curious as to why Wanda had to lie that she had a hundred dresses in her closet.

Truth about the same hundred dresses unveiled on the result day of the drawing competition. The room was lined with one hundred drawings portraying different dresses, each so beautiful. That day, she truly had “a hundred dresses all lined up”, but in the classroom. At that moment, Peggy and Maddie, who were awestruck realised the theory of a hundred dresses and felt guilty about having treated her badly

ELEANOR ESTES (1906-1988), a children's librarian for many years, launched her writing career with the publication of The Moffats in 1941. Two of her books about the Moffats are Newbery Honor Books, as is The Hundred Dresses.