The Hundred Dresses Part 2 Study Guide

What Happens in Part 2

This part looks back to explain how the cruel little game began. We learn that Peggy — the prettiest, most popular girl in the class — and her best friend Maddie would wait for quiet Wanda and ask her, over and over, how many dresses she had at home. And every time, Wanda gave the same answer: a hundred. A hundred dresses, she said, all lined up in her closet, of silk and velvet, in every color — and sixty pairs of shoes besides. The other girls would laugh, because everyone could see that Wanda wore the same faded blue dress every single day. It all started one bright morning when a girl named Cecile came to school in a lovely new dress that everyone admired; standing at the edge of the crowd, Wanda quietly said that she had a hundred dresses at home. Maddie laughs along with the others — but something about the game makes her uneasy, for Maddie is poor too, and secretly afraid that she could be the next one teased.

What We Will Learn

Focus	What It Means
Irony	When what is claimed clashes with the plain truth — one dress, a hundred imagined
Flashback	When a story jumps back to tell how something began
Motivation	The hidden reason a character acts as they do

Chapter Summary

Chapter	Key Events
Ch. 2 — The Dresses Game	The story looks back to how the teasing began. After a girl named Cecile wore a new dress everyone admired, Wanda said she had a hundred dresses at home, of silk and velvet, and sixty pairs of shoes. Peggy turns this into a daily game, and Maddie, poor and uneasy, laughs along instead of speaking up.

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

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

Have you ever seen teasing that the teasers called ‘just a game’? How did it feel to watch?
Wanda says she owns a hundred dresses but wears only one. Why might a person claim to have more than they really do?
Predict: how do you think Maddie truly feels as she laughs along with Peggy?

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 2, then answer each question.

🧠Knowledge Bank · One Dress, Washed at Night

Social History · Clothing and ThriftIn the 1930s and 1940s a poor American schoolchild might own two everyday outfits, sometimes only one. Dresses were sewn at home from printed flour sacks, or cut down from a grown-up’s worn coat, then washed at night and passed to a younger sister as a hand-me-down. A wardrobe of silk and velvet belonged to mail-order catalogs and to rich families. So a girl in one faded blue dress who claims a closet holding a hundred sounds impossible, and her classmates hear only the impossible part. Yet a child who owns almost nothing sometimes says something enormous aloud, so the sneering cannot reach all the way in. That is not greed; it is pride.

A sleeveless dress with a full skirt in a brown-and-white floral print, displayed on a mannequin against a dark background — Photograph of a dress sewn in 1959 by Dorothy Overall from printed cotton feed sacks, made for a national sewing contest and now in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The *Knowledge Bank* explains that in the 1930s and 1940s a poor schoolchild’s dress might be sewn at home from printed flour sacks, washed at night, and handed down to a younger sister. Mills printed the sacks with flowers on purpose, because they knew families would wear them. This dress is a prize-winning example from a later year, far finer than a daily faded blue dress, and it belonged to no one in the story. Notice the pattern — it began its life holding animal feed.
Feedsack dress by Dorothy Overall, 1959; Smithsonian National Museum of American History, released under CC0. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

admirev.Ch.2

To look at with pleasure and approval

“The girls admired Cecile’s new dress.”

teasev.Ch.2

To make fun of someone, half in play

“Peggy liked to tease Wanda each day.”

boastv.Ch.2

To speak too proudly of what you have

“Wanda seemed to boast of a hundred dresses.”

imaginev.Ch.2

To picture something in your mind

“Wanda could imagine a closet full of dresses.”

closetn.Ch.2

A cupboard or small room for clothes

“She said they hung in her closet.”

velvetn.Ch.2

A soft, rich kind of cloth

“Dresses of silk and velvet, she said.”

popularadj.Ch.2

Liked by many people

“Peggy was the most popular girl in class.”

uneasyadj.Ch.2

Worried; not comfortable inside

“Maddie felt uneasy about the game.”

wealthyadj.Ch.2

Having much money; rich

“Peggy came from a wealthy family.”

jealousadj.Ch.2

Unhappy that another has what you want

“She was not jealous, only sad.”

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, a poor schoolchild's dress in the 1930s might be sewn from ___.Ch.2

2To ‘tease’ someone is to —Ch.2

3Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 2

Word choices:closetvelvetwealthypopular- some words will not be used

Wanda said her dresses hung in her .

Some of the dresses, she said, were made of soft .

4To ‘boast’ is to —Ch.2

5If you feel ‘uneasy,’ you feel perfectly calm and comfortable.Ch.2

6To ‘imagine’ something is to —Ch.2

7Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 2

Word choices:uneasyjealousadmireboast- some words will not be used

Maddie felt about the whole game.

To feel is to want what another person has.

8A ‘popular’ person is one who is —Ch.2

9A ‘wealthy’ family is one that is —Ch.2

10A ‘jealous’ person is happy that others have good luck.Ch.2

Part 2

Comprehension

How well do you understand Chapter 2?

📚Knowledge Bank · Following a Flashback

Reading Skill · Time OrderStories do not always march forward. An author may swing back to an earlier day to show how a situation started, and that swing is called a flashback. This part does exactly that, returning to the morning the teasing began instead of continuing from where the last chapter stopped. Signal words mark the jump: used to, one day last week, she remembered. Verb tense helps as well, because writers often slip into had said or had worn for the earlier layer. Whenever the ground shifts, pause and ask whether you are watching now or watching before. Putting events back into their true order is what makes the characters’ feelings make sense.

Visual AidNow, or before?

Diagram for the Knowledge Bank on following a flashback. The right card is the story’s present and the left card is the earlier morning the Knowledge Bank says this part swings back to, with the red arrow running backward in time; the red card collects the signal words and verb tenses the Knowledge Bank lists as markers of the jump. It does not retell either scene. Notice that the arrow points left — a flashback moves against the direction a reader expects.

Present, earlier layer and signal words as described in the Knowledge Bank. Drawn for Garden Heights Academy.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1The Knowledge Bank says signal words like used to and she remembered mark ___.Ch.2

2How many dresses does Wanda claim to have at home?Ch.2

3What does Wanda say her dresses are made of?Ch.2

4How many pairs of shoes does Wanda claim to own?Ch.2

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the order in which the dresses game began. Number 1 = what happened first.Ch. 2

Wanda quietly says she has a hundred dresses at home.
The other girls crowd around to admire it.
Maddie laughs along, though it makes her uneasy.
Peggy turns the answer into a daily game.
Cecile comes to school in a lovely new dress.

6Who leads the teasing of Wanda?Ch.2

7Why does the game make Maddie feel uneasy?Ch.2

8Where does Wanda say the hundred dresses are kept?Ch.2

9Wanda comes to school in a different fine dress each day.Ch.2

10Peggy believes she is not really being mean to Wanda.Ch.2

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Eleanor Estes tells the story in Chapter 2.

🎭Knowledge Bank · The Gap Between Word and Fact

Literary Craft · Irony at WorkIrony lives in a gap. A writer sets a statement beside a fact that contradicts it, then says nothing and lets the reader feel the distance. Here the gap is enormous: a daily faded dress on one side, a claimed hundred on the other, and no narrator stepping in to explain. Irony of that kind is not a joke; it is a way of making an ache visible on the page. Estes deepens it with structure, because the jump backward shows the beginning of the game only after we have felt its result. Ask, finally, what each girl wants, since motivation turns an odd claim into something a reader can understand.

📚 Literary Devices in This Part · definitions & examples

Irony is when what is said or seen clashes with the truth (Wanda claims a hundred dresses yet wears one). Flashback is when a story jumps back to an earlier time (this part explains how the game started). Motivation is the reason a character acts (why Wanda claims so much; why Maddie stays silent).

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, irony lives in ___.Ch.2

2A flashback is when a story jumps back to tell about an earlier time.Ch.2

3Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch. 2

Word choices:flashbackironyrhymeindex- some words will not be used

Jumping back to show how the game began is a .

A hundred claimed, one worn — that gap is .

4This part goes back to explain how the game started. That storytelling tool is a —Ch.2

5Motivation is the reason that lies behind why a character acts.Ch.2

6Fill in the blank with the correct word.Ch. 2

Word choices:motivationrhymesetting- some words will not be used

Maddie’s fear of being teased next is her for staying quiet.

7What is Maddie’s motivation for laughing along instead of speaking up?Ch.2

8The biggest irony of the dresses game is that Wanda —Ch.2

9Fill in the blank with the correct word.Ch. 2

Word choices:ironyrhymeplot- some words will not be used

When the truth is the opposite of what is claimed, we call it .

10Why does Estes use a flashback here?Ch.2

Part 4

Think Deeper

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

💭Knowledge Bank · Why People Claim More Than They Have

Psychology · Boasting and Self-WorthPsychologists who study boasting find it is usually defensive, not greedy. A bruised sense of worth may push a person to describe a bigger, brighter life, and that description works like a shield held up against other people’s judgment. Children do this most when they feel watched and ranked, which is what happens when a classmate arrives in an admired new dress. Hearing a boast, a listener can pick one of two questions: is this true, or what does this person need? The first invites teasing that its players will later insist was only a game. The second treats the speaker as someone holding a wish instead of a lie, and it is the only question that leads anywhere kind.

1Claim: “The ‘dresses game’ is really a way of mocking Wanda.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

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

◄ The cruelty of the gameJust a detail ►

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

Wanda always wears the same dress→

Peggy starts the game→

They ask over and over→

Maddie goes along→

🧠Knowledge Bank question

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

The Knowledge Bank says boasting is usually , so the kind listener asks .

Part 5

Standardized Test

Why People Sometimes Boast — SAT & TOEFL-style practice

Boasting as Wounded Dignity

Have you ever heard someone claim to own far more than they really do? Often there is a gentle reason behind it. A child who has very little may feel the sting of being looked down on, and one way to soften that hurt is to imagine a wealthy life and to speak of it aloud. This is not the same as ordinary greed. It can be a way of protecting one's dignity, the sense of being worthy and equal to everyone else. Long ago, families who arrived in a new country with almost nothing often held their heads high in just this way, taking pride in what they could dream even when their pockets were empty. Of course, boasting can also invite teasing from those who do not understand. But a wise and kind listener learns to hear the wish hidden inside the words. When someone seems to boast, they may really be saying, quietly, that they long to belong.

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

1According to the passage, why might a child who has little claim to have more?TOEFL · Factual Information

2To “imagine” a richer life means to —SAT · Words in Context

3The passage says this kind of claiming is not the same as —TOEFL · Factual Information

4In the passage, a wealthy life is one that is ___.SAT · Words in Context

5How did some newcomer families hold their heads high?TOEFL · Factual Information

6What can boasting invite, according to the passage?TOEFL · Factual Information

7What does a kind listener learn to hear?TOEFL · Factual Information

8To “boast” is to —SAT · Words in Context

9This TOEFL task lists six sentences; choose the THREE that best capture the passage’s main ideas. The other three do not belong — they state minor details or ideas the passage does not present.TOEFL · Prose Summary

10This passage connects to Part 2 because Wanda’s ‘hundred dresses’ are —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 2 “The Wish Behind the Words”

Wanda says she has a hundred dresses, though she owns only one. Imagine you are Wanda, alone after school. Why did you say it? What do you really wish for? Write what Wanda might be thinking — or write about a time you wished, just for a moment, that you had more than you did. Write at least 40 words.

You can start with: “I said a hundred dresses because…”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby how the dresses game began and why Maddie laughs along even though it troubles her. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.

Part 2 Complete!

You finished Chapter 2 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 3 →

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.