The Hundred Dresses
Recommended. Age: 7+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Wanda wears the same blue dress to school every day. She says she has a hundred dresses at home, and the other girls tease her for it. Maddie knows the teasing is wrong but stays quiet. The book shows how sorry she is and how Wanda forgives. It is short and a little sad, and it is good for kids about seven and up. This is the best short book there is on the sin of standing by. Maddie never says a cruel word and still knows she did wrong. Wanda's answer is a gift, not revenge. The story names no faith, yet its shape is contrition, a firm purpose to change, and mercy freely given.
For parents
Read aloud from six. Independent reading from seven or eight. Ask: Maddie never teased Wanda herself, so why does she feel so bad? That opens the door to sins of omission, the words we pray at Mass, 'what I have failed to do.' Ask what Maddie decides she will do next time. Point out that the girls cannot fully fix it, and that some wrongs need Confession as well as a letter. Every person bears God's image, poor and foreign included (CCC 1934).