FARMINGTON – Purple velvet. White silk. Maroon sequined. Red, flowered print.

Some long dresses, others short, with several representing different time periods.

At least 100 dresses lined the hallway and overflowed into the cafeteria Wednesday at the Cascade Brook School.

Each dress was different.

Staff members brought in the dresses for the exhibit, which included Rose Lake’s wedding dress.

It wasn’t about fashion or the newest style.

Fourth-graders had read the book “The Hundred Dresses,” written by Eleanor Estes in 1994.

The book’s theme of bullying, teasing and exclusion was a lesson children in the school learn in the Bullying Prevention Program.

The school’s prevention program committee chairwoman, Martina Arnold, and librarian Trish Flint read the book with the students and discussed it.

After fourth-graders finished the book – about Wanda Petronski, a girl of 11 or 12 who wore only a blue dress but claimed she had 100 dresses in her closet- they visited the fifth-graders to remind them of the lessons they had learned.

In the book, Wanda’s classmates teased and taunted her and excluded her from activities. Soon, Wanda’s desk was empty for many days, collecting dust. And the children began to wonder what happened to her.

Then one day, Wanda’s father sent a letter telling the teacher that Wanda wouldn’t be coming back to that school, and that no one there would be able to taunt his daughter again.

The children in the story had been participating in an art contest in which the girls were to draw dresses and the boys boats.

When the day for the judging came, students arrived at school and saw 100 pictures of dresses by the same artist. The girls who had teased Wanda stared in awe at the beautifully drawn dresses. Although Wanda wasn’t there anymore, she had won the contest.

The girls felt bad and went to Wanda’s house, but she wasn’t there.

Later, a letter from Wanda arrived, telling the girls that they could have the pictures of certain dresses as Christmas presents.

At Cascade Brook School on Wednesday, each class visited the dress exhibit.

Sixth-grader Ashlynn Bodah remembered the book and how Wanda was bullied.

“It wasn’t funny,” she said. She had read the book last year.

“She had to move away,” said Kelsey Kidd, another sixth-grader in Sue Bisaillon’s class.