The Hundred Dresses Quotes

“After a long, long time she reached an important conclusion. She was never going to stand by and say nothing again.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“She was never going to stand by and say nothing again.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“If she ever heard anybody picking on someone because they were funny looking or because they had strange names, she’d speak up. Even if it meant losing Peggy’s friendship. She had no way of making things right with Wanda, but from now on she would never make anybody else so unhappy again.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“She had a very sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing. She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done. Worse. She was a coward. At least Peggy hadn’t considered they were being mean, but she, Maddie, had thought they were doing wrong. She had thought, supposing she was the one being made fun of. She could put herself in Wanda’s shoes. But she had done just as much as Peggy to make life miserable for Wanda by simply standing by and saying nothing. She had helped to make someone so unhappy that she had had to move away from town.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“had to make fun of Wanda. She worked her arithmetic problems absentmindedly. Eight times eight . . . let’s see . . . nothing she could do about making fun of Wanda.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“when”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“imagining”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Petronski”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Wanda,”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“All”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“waited for her under the maple trees”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“She had stood by and said nothing, but Wanda had been nice to her anyway.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“I am sure none of my boys and girls in Room 13 would purposely and deliberately hurt anyone’s feelings because his name happened to be a long, unfamiliar one. I prefer to think that what was said was said in thoughtlessness. I know that all of you feel the way I do, that this is a very unfortunate thing to have happen. Unfortunate and sad, both. And I want you all to think about it.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Dear teacher: My Wanda will not come to your school anymore. Jake also. Now we move away to big city. No more holler Polack. No more ask why funny name. Plenty of funny names in the big city. Yours truly, Jan Petronski.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Peggy, to say, “Hey, Peg, let’s stop asking Wanda how many dresses she has.” When she finished her arithmetic, she did start a note to Peggy. Suddenly she paused and shuddered. She pictured herself in the school yard, a new target for Peggy and the girls. Peggy might ask her where she got the dress she had on, and Maddie would have to say that it was one of Peggy’s old ones that Maddie’s mother had tried to disguise with new trimmings so that no one in Room 13 would recognize it. If only Peggy would decide of her own accord to stop having fun with Wanda. Oh, well! Maddie ran her hand through her short blond hair as though to push the uncomfortable thoughts away. What difference did it make? Slowly Maddie tore the note she had started into bits. She was Peggy’s best friend, and Peggy was the best-liked girl in the whole room. Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really wrong, she thought.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Yes, that was the way it had all begun, the game of the hundred dresses. It all happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, with everybody falling right in, that even if you felt uncomfortable as Maddie had there wasn’t anything you could do about it. Maddie wagged her head up and down. Yes, she repeated to herself, that was the way it began, that day, that bright blue day.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“More shouts of laughter greeted this, and off the girls ran, laughing and talking and forgetting Wanda and her hundred dresses. Forgetting until tomorrow and the next day and the next, when Peggy, seeing her coming to school, would remember and ask her about the hundred dresses. For now Peggy seemed to think a day was lost if she had not had some fun with Wanda, winning the approving laughter of the girls.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Maybe, thought Maddie, remembering what had happened next, maybe she figured all she’d have to do was say something and she’d really be one of the girls. And this would be an easy thing to do because all they were doing was talking about dresses.”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses

“Bright Blue Day   SOMEHOW Maddie could not buckle down to work. She sharpened her pencil,”
― Eleanor Estes, The Hundred Dresses