The Hundred Dresses

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Reading Check

1. How does Miss Mason always begin her session?

2. Why does Maddie want Peggy to stop teasing Wanda?

3. According to Wanda, where does she wear her different dresses?

4. What does the letter from Wanda’s father say?

5. What is the “important conclusion” that Maddie comes to?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the character of Wanda. How do her classmates feel about her?

2. Why do the girls talk to Wanda before and after school? How does Wanda react?

3. Why is Maddie conflicted about Peggy? What does she decide to do in the end?

4. What contest does Wanda win? How do her classmates react?

5. Summarize Wanda’s letter to the class. What gifts does she give to Maddie and Peggy?

Paired Resource

“Eleanor Estes Assuages Her Childhood Guilt”

• This New England Historical Society article discusses the author’s motivation for writing the novel (this connects with the third Full Essay Assignment).
• Estes’s reflection on her personal experience with bullying connects with the themes of The Damaging Effect of Bullying and Discrimination and The Importance of Respect and Kindness.
• Why does the author feel guilty about her actions? What are other ways in which one can work to overcome guilty feelings?

Recommended Next Reads 

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

• Estes’s 1951 children’s novel centers on the relationship between Ginger the puppy and the Pye family.
• Shared themes include The Importance of Respect and Kindness toward family, friends, animals, and the community.
• Shared topics include the setting as well as empathy for various family dynamics.
• Ginger Pye on SuperSummary

Stuart Little by E. B. White

• White’s 1945 children’s book follows the life of a mouse with human parents.
• Like Estes’s works, White’s novel echoes The Importance of Respect and Kindness toward family, friends, animals, and the community, as well as The Power of Imagination and The Damaging Effect of Bullying and Discrimination on children and youth.
• Shared topics include making new friends in school and empathy for various family dynamics.
• Stuart Little on SuperSummary