Realistic Fiction
3rd, 4th, or 5th Grade
This is a story that teaches children the importance of being nice to people. Maddie and her friend Peggy waited for Wanda everyday so that they could pick on her because she wore the same blue dress everyday and had a weird last name. They picked on Wanda because every time they asked her how many dresses she had, she would say she had 100, and they knew this was not true. It bothered Maddie that everyone, including her, was mean to Wanda because she too did not have a lot of money. Maddie never said anything to stop anyone from picking on Wanda because she did not want everyone to start picking on her.
Wanda had been missing for a few days before anyone noticed and it was not until she won the contest that everyone realized where she was. Each year girls drew dresses for a contest and every year Peggy won the contest. On the day that the winner would be announced everyone walked into the classroom to find 100 pictures of dresses hanging around the room. All of the dresses were beautiful. The teacher announced that Wanda had drawn each of them, and the girls realized that this was the 100 dresses she was referring to.
Shortly after this announcement the class received a note saying that Wanda would not be returning to school. She and her family were leaving because of the hurtful things people said to them. This really upset Maddie because she realized she would never be able to say she was sorry. After school Maddie and Peggy went to Wanda's house to tell her she won the contest but they discovered she had already left. Maddie still wanted to tell her she was sorry, so she convinced Peggy to write a note with her to send to Wanda to see how she was doing. For a long time the girls did not hear anything back from Wanda. But then one day Wanda sent a note to her old class telling the girls that they could keep two of the dresses and the rest could be divided up between the other members of the classroom. After carefully looking at the photos Peggie and Maddie realized that Wanda had drawn those dresses for them because the person wearing the dresses had their faces. This sweet act of kindness stunned Maddie because she could not believe that someone she was so mean to forgave her.
At the beginning of each year I want to introduce students to books that will help build a classroom community. I feel that this book will be a great one to include. It will teach the kids about the importance of being nice to everyone. After reading this book as a class I will let the students come up with some rules for the classroom about how others should be treated.
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