The Hundred Dresses

Title: The Hundred Dresses
1945 Newbery Honor Book
Author: Eleanor Estes
Published: 1944
Plot Summary: This is the story of a poor Polish immigrant named Wanda Petronski who tells her well-off American classmates that she has 100 dresses. Wanda classmates, observing the shabby clothing that signifies poverty, deride and tease Wanda. Maddie realizes the brutality of her silence as she watched her friends tease Wanda day after day.
Main Characters: Wanda Petronski, Maddie, Peggy
Theme(s): the complicity of silence in carrying out injustices
Reader's Response: Readers will examine the process by which group identity is often formed and legitimized by marginalizing people from different backgrounds.
Teaching Idea: Discuss bullying. Have students create 2 to 3 minute short videos about bullying scenarios and how to deal with bullying.
Grade Level: 3 - 4
Reading Level (Lexile): 870

April's Kittens

Title: April's Kittens
1941 Caldecott Honor Book
Author/Illustrator: Clare Turlay Newberry
Published: 1940
Summary: The story of how a little girl, April, has to choose to keep one of her four cats; choosing between her beloved Sheba and one of her three kittens.
Memorable Quote: 'So April and her mother and father and Sheba lived all crowded up together in a very small apartment."
Artistic Example: Striking look of a single black cat on white background helps to keep the theme of the book.
Teaching Idea: Have children select four of their most favorite toys and then choosing only one to keep.
Grade Level: K5 - 2
Reading Level (Lexile):