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Summary: Absorbing Story & Historical Information
Review: "Five Little Peppers" is a lovely, absorbing story that also provides children with a clue about life before television, computers and malls. My daughter, age 8, describes it as a book she would like to "jump into." Two notes about the current HarperFestival paperback version: The cover illustration of the HarperFestival edition is highly misleading in that it depicts a family in essentially contemporary clothing. Also, the tape used to affix the accompanying necklace is so sticky that it can ruin the inside cover a bit when detaching.
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Summary: A Classic for Every Generation
Review: At the turn of the last century, five children and their widowed mother are left alone in the Brown House to make do in the daunting face of real poverty, with the fear of starvation always looming. And yet, the Pepper house is full of love. The five children, Ben, Polly, Davie, Joel and Phronsie, all help their mother in the day-to-day chores that make up their rough existence.True to the mores of the time, Polly helps her mother sew so she can earn her pitiful pennies as a seamstress. The older boys do odd jobs and their chores. They frequently have nothing to eat but a cold potato, and when measles strikes the house, the almost deadly consequences just about tear the family apart. But their strength and love pulls them through--just in time to meet a family that will change their lives forever. If you want your child to learn true family values, and to see and value the true spirit of giving, this is the book. Without preaching, without being cloying, without hammering the point home, "The Five Little Peppers" is a lasting testament to all that is good in people. Its charm is as strong today as it was generations ago.
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Summary: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Review: Ever since Mr. Pepper died, Mrs. Pepper and her five children have had barley enough money to eat and pay rent. But that doesn't stop them from having fun! Join the Pepper family in all of their adaventures, in the beloved little brown house and out!
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Summary: Unforgettable Story
Review: From the reviews it appears that readers remember it differently from one another. I thought it was set during or immediately after the civil war which killed the father. I can't remember any books from my childhood except maybe for Little House (and that may be mostly due to the TV show) yet this one stayed with me all these years. I don't know why this particular book appealed to me so much, there is something very endearing about it that time will not erase. It might also have something to do with my mother reading chapters to me each night before bed, :-)
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Summary: Unforgettable Story
Review: From the reviews it appears that readers remember it differently from one another. I thought it was set during or immediately after the civil war which killed the father. I can't remember any books from my childhood except maybe for Little House (and that may be mostly due to the TV show) yet this one stayed with me all these years. I don't know why this particular book appealed to me so much, there is something very endearing about it that time will not erase. It might also have something to do with my mother reading chapters to me each night before bed, :-)
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Summary: This is a story that I have many fond memories of.
Review: I have not actually read this version of the story. The version I have is written by Margaret Sidney, but adapted by Olive Price and illustarted by Claudine Nankivel. It was published in 1974. I can remember my mom reading this story to me when I was too young to read myself. She would read a few pages a night to me. I bet it took her a month to read the entire thing to me. I remember I couldn't wait to hear more about the five little Peppers everynight and always wanted her to read just a little bit more. I highly recommend sharing this story with children. It had a very good moral. It made such and impression that over 20 yrs later, I am sending this version to my mom for Mother's Day.
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Summary: The Five Little Peppers and How they Grew
Review: I last read this book when I was 8 years old. It is the story of a loving,caring family,with Polly, the oldest child setting a loving example of selflessness and caring for her sisters and brother and family members. The book chronicles a life of hardship and deprivation to eventual luxury for all. I'm quite a bit older now, but the book left a tremendous impact about how caring for each other is life's ultimate reward.
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Summary: I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: I picked it up at a antic book shop, (one of the originals:dated back to 1948 or something) I managed to find one of the sequels, also one of the very old ones! I recomend this book to everyone everywhere. I especially recomend it to you if you are down in the dumps; it will really cheer you up, I promise! Email me if you want to. I'm willing to chat with anyone interested
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Summary: There is something special here
Review: I recently re-read this book, which I'd enjoyed as a child (forty years ago). Today, it seems rather dismal to me - horrible poverty, illness, the pat happy ending and children who are horribly gushing over their mother. Yet, years back, what I most liked about the story was that, being a very independent and mature child myself, Polly and Ben succeed very well at taking on adult responsibilities. Though I'm at a loss about explaining exactly how the author does so, I've found that this is a book which every reader interprets differently - and that shows an amazing depth. My own mother remembers reading it as a child, and being moved by the familial devotion and respect for the matriarch. As other posts here make clear, it can reach each of us on a different level. This book is a worthy addition to any child's library. However, I'd leave a single caveat: do not use it to prompt "a talk," especially on the "look how good you have it today" theme. Let the era introduce itself. It was a time of great poverty for many, yet also one which idealised a form of "perfect" family relationships which no one could hope to have. The combination of gritty realism with idealistic dreams has a message that kids will grasp on their own, and probably quite inventively.
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Summary: REALLY DATED BUT STILL IN PRINT!
Review: Margaret Sidney's quaint story about growing up in a fatherless home is too sweet and sentimental to appeal to most elementary kids in the 90's; yet it would be a good choice to read aloud one chapter at bedtime. I was frustrated by not knowing the exact location of Badgertown--at least give me a state! And even more by the lack of a specified date: people travel by carriage or stagecoach; they use candles for illumination; cook on wood-burning stoves and the Law was casual about attempted kidnapping. The five Pepper children, ranging from 11 down to 2, grow up despite crushing poverty--thanks to the generosity of neighbors and the kindness of pastor. Then they have the incredible good fortune to befriend a rich man's son. One almost drowns in the love, hugs and kisses bestowed among the siblings--even the young boys rarely fight. And the mother is--as usual--too good to be true. We never find out what happened to their father, but it probably was not divorce two literary generations back. I question the author's plot, unelss she is throwing a subtle hint concerning a moral issue: can one rich man play God with another man's family and disrupt their lives? Does he have the right to try to separate or totally uproot them-- even if he acts with genuine benevolence, to improve their lifestyle? I feel that the chapter titles reveal too much of the forthcoming plot--a common tendency in Turn-of-the-Century children's books. Also the illustrations in my Wonder Read Aloud edition make ten-year-old Polly appear much older. She certainly Acts like a responsible teenager and little mother already. The plot is too easily resolved (Deux ex machina). Sidney's characters are in danger of sacrificing their close-knit Pepperness in exchange for fancy digs and freedom from financial distress. Is this a warning from Ms Sidney or just a convenient if contrived denouemnet to her favorite family's misfortunes? Is she trying to convey the unBiblical message that God helps those who help themselves? Read ! this book with a few grains of salt, to discover if she has a hidden moral agenda or was just writing in the style of a by-gone age. A Rags to Riches tale which our grandparents might have read.
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