Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Book review -- The Hundred Dresses

The Hundred Dresses The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes


My rating: 4 of 5 stars







In third grade, I was Peggy, the character in Eleanor Estes’ book, The Hundred Dresses. I don’t remember why, but I was mean to a little girl named Kristen. So much so, that my parents, her parents and the teacher all became involved in trying to resolve the conflict. Still, 30+ years later, I’m troubled by my actions, and why I acted so cruelly. Which is why The Hundred Dresses is such a timeless book – and shows us how the power of words can be used for such good and such harm.

Our third grade mother/daughter book group took the month OFF for the holidays – so my daughter and I read this book together, in lieu of Betsy –Tacy. I hope my daughter uses kind words with her friends in school and doesn’t follow in her mother’s footsteps.

Additionaly, the illustrations by Louis Slobodkin are ghostly and amazing.

I highly recommend reading this book with your school aged children.

Book source: public library

View all my reviews >>

2 comments:

Tricia said...

I loved this book when I was a kid! Thank you for reminding me about it. :)

Becca said...

I also LOVED this book when I was little. It really affected me for some reason-- always stuck with me. So much so, that when Lucy was a toddler I bought it to some day read with her. I hoped so much that it would mean as much to her as it did me. GREAT choice!