The Hundred Dresses Part 1 Study Guide

What Happens in Part 1

It is a bright Monday morning in November, and Room 13 is missing someone. Wanda Petronski is not in her seat — the seat in the far corner, over by the rough, muddy-shoe boys, where the quiet children who are never quite noticed are put. For a while, nobody even sees that she is gone. Wanda is a poor girl with a hard-to-say Polish name who lives far off on lonely Boggins Heights, and she wears the very same faded blue dress to school every single day — always clean, but always a little crooked and too big. She has no close friends and says almost nothing. In this gentle, ordinary-looking opening, Eleanor Estes quietly sets her stage: an empty desk, a girl who is easy to overlook, and a classroom that does not yet realize how much it will come to matter that Wanda Petronski was ever there at all.

What We Will Learn

Focus	What It Means
Characterization	How an author shows what Wanda is like — mostly through what others notice
Setting	Room 13, the town, and lonely Boggins Heights where Wanda lives
Point of View	We see Wanda from the outside, through her classmates’ eyes, not her own

Chapter Summary

Chapter	Key Events
Ch. 1 — Wanda	On a Monday in November, the class slowly notices that Wanda Petronski’s corner seat is empty. We learn she is a quiet, poor girl with a Polish name who lives up on lonely Boggins Heights and wears the same faded blue dress every day. The stage is quietly set for the story to come.

💭 Before You Read · Warm-Up (not scored)

There are no wrong answers here — just think, guess, and talk:

Is there a seat in your own classroom that people barely notice? Who sits there, and why do you think that is?
Wanda wears the same clean dress every day. What might that quietly tell you about her family, even though no one says it aloud?
Predict: the book is called The Hundred Dresses, yet Wanda seems to own only one faded blue dress. What do you think the title might mean?

Copyright Notice

This is an independent study guide created by Garden Heights Academy to support reading comprehension and literary analysis. It contains original analysis questions and does not reproduce any text from the novel. The Hundred Dresses is a work by Eleanor Estes. This guide is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by the author or any associated rights holder.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapter 1, then answer each question.

🧠Knowledge Bank · A Name From Far Away

History · Coming to AmericaPetronski is a Polish family name, and it tells us Wanda’s parents crossed an ocean to reach America. Between 1892 and 1954 more than twelve million people entered the country through Ellis Island in New York Harbor, carrying names that clerks, teachers and neighbors then shortened, respelled or simply gave up on. Many families later anglicized their own names on purpose, so that Kowalczyk became Smith, hoping the change would spare their children trouble at school. A name is the first thing a class hears about anyone. When it looks unusual on a list, it can mark a child before she has said one word, and mark her as an outsider.

A black-and-white 1904 photograph of a large hall packed with newly arrived immigrants standing in railed lines beneath a balcony — Photograph published in 1904 by Underwood and Underwood of the great hall of the Immigrant Building on Ellis Island, packed with newly arrived families waiting in railed lines beneath a balcony. The *Knowledge Bank* explains that between 1892 and 1954 more than twelve million people entered America through this building, carrying names that clerks, teachers, and neighbors then shortened, respelled, or gave up on. Somewhere in a crowd like this a family named Petronski would have stood with its long Polish name. The people here are unnamed strangers, not Wanda’s family, and the photograph was taken decades before the story. Notice the railings dividing the hall — every newcomer was sorted, questioned, and written down.
Immigrants just arrived at the Immigrant Building, Ellis Island, New York Harbor; stereograph by Underwood and Underwood, 1904, Library of Congress. Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

fadedadj.Ch.1

Grown pale; having lost its color

“Wanda’s blue dress looked faded and worn.”

noticev.Ch.1

To see or become aware of something

“At first no one noticed Wanda was gone.”

cornern.Ch.1

The far edge of a room, where two walls meet

“Her desk stood in the far corner.”

immigrantn.Ch.1

A person who moves to live in a new country

“Wanda’s family were immigrants from far away.”

peculiaradj.Ch.1

Strange or unusual

“The children thought her name was peculiar.”

absentadj.Ch.1

Not present; away

“Wanda was absent from school on Monday.”

lonelyadj.Ch.1

Without company; set far from others

“Boggins Heights was a lonely place.”

seldomadv.Ch.1

Not often; rarely

“Quiet Wanda seldom said a word.”

mockv.Ch.1

To make fun of someone unkindly

“Some children liked to mock her name.”

shabbyadj.Ch.1

Worn and in poor condition

“Her shoes were a little shabby.”

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, many immigrant families anglicized their own names hoping to ___.Ch.1

2To ‘notice’ something is to —Ch.1

3Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 1

Word choices:immigrantcornerabsentlonely- some words will not be used

Wanda’s family came from far away; they were .

Her desk stood in the far of the room.

4Something ‘peculiar’ is —Ch.1

5If you are ‘absent’ from school, you are sitting right there in your seat.Ch.1

6A ‘lonely’ place is one that is —Ch.1

7Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 1

Word choices:seldommockshabbyfaded- some words will not be used

Quiet Wanda spoke up in class.

It is unkind to a person for being poor.

8‘Shabby’ clothes are —Ch.1

9To ‘mock’ someone is to —Ch.1

10If you do something ‘seldom,’ you do it very often.Ch.1

Part 2

Comprehension

How well do you understand Chapter 1?

📚Knowledge Bank · Knowing a Character Through Small Details

Reading Skill · Small CluesWriters seldom announce what a person is like. They plant details and trust readers to gather them: where a child sits, what she wears every day, how far she walks to school. Estes builds Wanda almost entirely this way, and she adds a rarer kind of clue — an absence. An empty corner desk states something no description could. Good readers keep a running list of such scraps, then ask what picture the scraps make when added together. Do that here, and a shy, poor, tired girl takes shape long before she ever speaks. Gather enough small things and you are holding a whole person.

Visual AidSmall clues add up

Diagram for the Knowledge Bank on knowing a character through small details. The four clue cards are the kinds of scraps the Knowledge Bank tells readers to gather, where a child sits, what she wears, how far she walks, and the rarer clue of an absence; the red card is the picture the Knowledge Bank says those scraps make when added together. It lists kinds of clues, not sentences from the book. Notice that all four arrows meet at one card — no single scrap describes her, but together they do.

Kinds of clues and the picture they make, as described in the Knowledge Bank. Drawn for Garden Heights Academy.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1The Knowledge Bank says the rarer kind of clue Estes adds is ___.Ch.1

2On what day of the week does the chapter begin?Ch.1

3Where does Wanda’s desk sit in the classroom?Ch.1

4What does Wanda wear to school every single day?Ch.1

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the order in which we learn about Wanda in Part 1. Number 1 = what we learn first.Ch. 1

We picture what she wears every day.
We learn she has a hard-to-say Polish name.
We sense she is a girl easy to overlook.
We hear she lives far off on Boggins Heights.
The class slowly notices her seat is empty.

6Why does no one notice at first that Wanda is gone?Ch.1

7What is unusual about Wanda’s name to her classmates?Ch.1

8Where does Wanda live?Ch.1

9Wanda has many close friends in Room 13.Ch.1

10Estes opens the story with Wanda’s empty seat rather than with Wanda herself.Ch.1

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Eleanor Estes tells the story in Chapter 1.

🎭Knowledge Bank · Building a Character From Outside

Literary Craft · Whose Eyes We BorrowAn author must choose a camera position before writing a line. Estes places hers among the classmates, so we meet Wanda only through what a busy, comfortable group happens to notice about her. That is a limited viewpoint, and it does two jobs at once: it keeps Wanda mysterious, and it quietly seats the reader inside the very crowd that ignores her. Characterization then arrives sideways, through a dress and a silence rather than a speech. She also opens without a villain or a raised voice, since real unfairness usually looks this ordinary. Notice too how much work the setting performs, since a corner desk and a hill far outside town describe a social position and not merely a place.

📚 Literary Devices in This Part · definitions & examples

Characterization is how an author shows what a character is like (Wanda’s faded dress and silence reveal her). Setting is where and when a story happens (Room 13; the town; lonely Boggins Heights). Point of view is whose eyes we see through — here, the classmates’, so Wanda stays a bit of a mystery.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, placing the camera among the classmates keeps Wanda mysterious and ___.Ch.1

2Setting is where and when a story takes place.Ch.1

3Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 1

Word choices:characterizationsettingrhymeindex- some words will not be used

Room 13 and lonely Boggins Heights are part of the story’s .

Building Wanda from small details is .

4The lonely, faraway feel of Boggins Heights mainly helps build the story’s —Ch.1

5In Chapter 1 we mostly see Wanda from the inside, through her own private thoughts.Ch.1

6Fill in the blank with the correct word.Ch. 1

Word choices:viewrhymeindex- some words will not be used

We watch Wanda only through her classmates’ eyes — that is the story’s point of .

7Why might Estes show Wanda from the outside at first?Ch.1

8The ‘corner seat’ detail mainly reveals Wanda’s —Ch.1

9Fill in the blank with the correct word.Ch. 1

Word choices:characterizationrhymeplot- some words will not be used

The way an author builds a person from details is called .

10Opening in Room 13 with an empty desk mainly sets both the —Ch.1

Part 4

Think Deeper

Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it through.

💭Knowledge Bank · The Quiet Ranking of a Classroom

Social Studies · Status in the ClassroomEvery classroom carries a quiet ranking, and children read it long before an adult explains it. Who sits in front, who sits by the muddy-shoe corner, whose clothes look new — those signals sort a room into a hierarchy within days. Researchers who study school life describe the children at the bottom as socially invisible: not hated, simply unregistered, so nobody asks them a question or saves them a seat. Wanda’s far corner and her one washed dress place her exactly there, without anyone deciding it aloud. The cost runs both ways, because a class that never looks never learns who is sitting in it. Kindness begins with the plain choice to notice.

1Claim: “From the start, Wanda is shown as a child no one really notices.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2Shows Wanda as overlooked, or just a detail of the scene? Tap each item to sort it — tap again to switch sides. You can keep tapping to change your answer.Sort into two

◄ Wanda overlookedJust a detail ►

3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect

Wanda is a quiet girl→

The corner is for the unnoticed→

One Monday she is absent→

Wanda is easily overlooked→

🧠Knowledge Bank question

4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument

The Knowledge Bank says researchers call children at the bottom of a classroom ranking socially invisible, meaning , and the cost runs both ways because .

Part 5

Standardized Test

New Names in a New Land — SAT & TOEFL-style practice

Renaming Families at Ellis Island

More than a hundred years ago, millions of immigrant families left their homes in Europe and sailed to America, hoping for a better life. Many first arrived at Ellis Island, a busy gateway in New York Harbor, where officials wrote down each newcomer's name. Names from places like Poland were often long and unfamiliar to American ears, and they were sometimes shortened, misspelled, or simply hard for others to say. A family named Petronski, for example, might find that neighbors and classmates stumbled over their name. For a child, a different name could signal that they did not quite belong, and a few unkind classmates might mock it. Yet these names carried whole histories, of grandparents, villages, and long journeys across the sea. To learn to say a new friend's name correctly is a small but real act of respect. It tells that person that they are seen, and that they belong.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1Where did many immigrant families first arrive?TOEFL · Factual Information

2In the passage, an immigrant family is one that ___.SAT · Words in Context

3What often happened to long, unfamiliar names?TOEFL · Factual Information

4To “mock” a name is to —SAT · Words in Context

5What did these names carry, according to the passage?TOEFL · Factual Information

6Saying a name correctly is called an act of “respect,” meaning you —SAT · Words in Context

7Ellis Island is described as —TOEFL · Factual Information

8What does learning a friend’s name tell that person?TOEFL · Factual Information

9What is the passage mainly about?TOEFL · Rhetorical Purpose

10This passage connects to Part 1 because Wanda —TOEFL · Rhetorical Purpose

Part 6 · Optional

Creative Writing

A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.

About This Section

This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!

Writing Task — Part 1 “The One Nobody Notices”

Wanda sits alone in the corner, and at first no one even notices she is gone. Write about a time you felt new or left out — or imagine you are Wanda on a school morning. How does it feel to be the one nobody notices? What is one small, kind thing a classmate could do to help? Write at least 40 words.

You can start with: “The hardest part of being the one nobody notices is…”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby who Wanda Petronski is and why her corner seat was empty. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.

Part 1 Complete!

You finished Chapter 1 of The Hundred Dresses.

Here are your auto-graded results:

-

points out of 100

Teach it to someone

The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.

Move on to Part 2 →

Independent study guide by Garden Heights Academy. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the author or any rights holders. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced.