The Hundred Dresses

Soon after the first book, we read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Product description from Amazon:

Wanda Petronski lives way up in shabby Boggins Heights, and she doesn't have any friends. Every day she wears a faded blue dress, which wouldn't be too much of a problem if she didn't tell her schoolmates that she had a hundred dresses at home--all silk, all colors, and velvet, too. This lie--albeit understandable in light of her dress-obsessed circle--precipitates peals of laughter from her peers, and she never hears the end of it. One day, after Wanda has been absent from school for a few days, the teacher receives a note from Wanda's father, a Polish immigrant: "Dear teacher: My Wanda will not come to your school any more. 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."
Maddie, a girl who had stood by while Wanda was taunted about her dresses, feels sick inside: "True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing.... She was a coward.... She had helped to make someone so unhappy that she had had to move away from town." Repentant, Maddie and her friend Peggy head up to Boggins Heights to see if the Petronskis are still there. When they discover the house is empty, Maddie despairs: "Nothing would ever seem good to her again, because just when she was about to enjoy something--like going for a hike with Peggy to look for bayberries or sliding down Barley Hill--she'd bump right smack into the thought that she had made Wanda Petronski move away."

Here are some activity sheets to accompany the book:

The Hundred Dresses Quiz

Vocab Puzzle

The Hundred Dresses Lesson plan

Here are a few other activities we had the girls do in our book club meeting:

• We had them design a dress using different embellishments (i.e. glitter, sequins, buttons etc.). One of the mothers kindly let us borrow a design stencil set she has for her daughter. 
• We discussed the issue of bullying - what it is and how it makes others feel. To illustrate the point, we had them engage in a role playing activity using scenes from the book. This was led by a mother who asked the girls thought provoking questions. They discussed feelings/emotions and solutions for different bullying scenarios. 
• Each girl was asked to bring a dress of their own choosing which was to be donated to those less fortunate than us. This led to a discussion on helping others and being grateful for what we have. 

The girls in the book club are aged 6 and up. This book was very rich in vocabulary and some issues may have been quite advanced for some to fully grasp and comprehend. I feel as though this is a book that'll be worth re-reading in the future, insha'Allah.