A person who comes to live in a new country, far from the one they were born in

📝 Her grandfather was an immigrant who arrived with one suitcase and no English at all.

📖 Wanda Petronski is the daughter of immigrants, and her Polish surname is one of the things the other children pick on.

Belonging to another country; strange or unfamiliar

📝 The street signs were in a foreign language she could not read.

📖 To the girls at school, Wanda's name sounds foreign and funny, and they treat her as though she does not quite belong.

Very poor; having almost no money

📝 The flood left dozens of impoverished families with nothing but the clothes they wore.

📖 Wanda's impoverished family lives up on Boggins Heights, in a part of town the other children look down on.

So poor that you lack the basic things you need to live

📝 The old man was nearly destitute, counting out his last few coins for bread.

📖 The Petronskis are close to destitute, and Wanda owns just one faded dress that she washes and wears again and again.

Very small in amount; far less than is needed

📝 They shared a meagre supper of thin soup and a single slice of bread.

📖 Wanda's meagre wardrobe holds a single blue dress, which is why her claim of a hundred seems so impossible.

Worn out and in poor condition from long use

📝 He wore the same shabby coat every winter, patched at both elbows.

📖 Wanda's dress is shabby but always clean, faded to a soft blue and a little too short at the hem.

Torn, frayed, and untidy

📝 The scarecrow wore a ragged shirt that flapped in the wind.

📖 Nobody expects the ragged, quiet girl in the corner to turn out to be the most gifted artist in the whole school.

Untidy, with hair or clothes in disorder

📝 She arrived dishevelled and breathless after running all the way home.

📖 Wanda often looks a little dishevelled after the long, muddy walk down from Boggins Heights each morning.

So ordinary and plain that there is nothing to notice or describe

📝 The spy chose a nondescript grey car that no one would ever remember.

📖 To most of the class Wanda is nondescript, a girl so quiet and plain they barely notice her, except to tease.

Not easily seen or noticed; blending into the background

📝 He sat at the back, trying to stay inconspicuous until the lesson ended.

📖 Wanda keeps herself inconspicuous, taking the corner seat where the children who are overlooked usually sit.

A person who is not accepted by others and is left out

📝 After the argument he felt like an outcast, eating lunch alone every day.

📖 Wanda is treated as an outcast, laughed at for her name, her home, and her one plain dress.

Feeling uncomfortably aware of how others might be judging you

📝 She felt self-conscious reading aloud, certain everyone was listening for a mistake.

📖 Maddie is self-conscious about her own hand-me-down clothes, which is part of why she is afraid to speak up for Wanda.

Quiet and kept to oneself; not joining in with others

📝 After the move he became withdrawn, saying little and keeping to his room.

📖 Wanda is withdrawn and silent, answering the teasing with nothing more than a small, tight smile.

Unwilling to say much; holding back your thoughts and feelings

📝 She was reticent about the prize, changing the subject whenever it came up.

📖 Reticent by nature, Wanda rarely speaks in class, which makes her sudden claim about the dresses all the more surprising.

To make something sound bigger, better, or more than it really is

📝 He tends to exaggerate, so a small puddle becomes a flood in his stories.

📖 At first the girls think Wanda is simply exaggerating, stretching one dress into ten to sound grand.

Something made up that is not true; an invention

📝 His excuse was a complete fabrication; he had never been ill at all.

📖 The hundred dresses sound like a pure fabrication, and that is exactly why the girls seize on them for their game.

To talk with too much pride about what you have or can do

📝 She did not like to boast, even after winning the national competition.

📖 The girls believe Wanda is trying to boast, when really her quiet claim hides something far sadder and truer than they guess.