28 Books -- Day 10

[bluecastle]

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney (1881)

"The little old kitchen had quieted down from the bustle and confusion of mid-day; and now, with its afternoon manners on, presented a holiday aspect, that as the principal room in the brown house, it was eminently proper it should have. It was just on the edge of the twilight; and the little Peppers, all except Ben, the oldest of the flock, were enjoying a "breathing spell," as their mother called it, which meant some quiet work suitable for the hour. All the "breathing spell" they could remember however, poor things; for times were always hard with them nowadays; and since the father died, when Phronsie was a baby, Mrs. Pepper had had hard work to scrape together money enough to put bread into her children's mouths, and to pay the rent of the little brown house." (page 7)

Unlike a lot of these books I've been reminiscing about, I remember exactly where I was when I discovered it. I was upstairs playing with some boys who were the children of friends of my parents. The parents were all downstairs playing penny poker. I remember finding "Five Little Peppers..." on one of the boy's bedroom shelves, and another book obsession was born! (And I still have that book... so I guess I took to book thievery early on...)

There are actually twelve "Little Pepper" books. I've read maybe half of them. (Interlibrary loan is a wonderful thing.)

The five little Pepper children (Ben, Polly, Joel, David, and Phronsie) live in a little brown house with their widowed mother who takes in sewing to make the ends meet. Things are pretty bleak for this family, monetarily at least, but the kids are all determined to do what they can "to help Mother."

Eventually they meet a bored little rich boy by the name of Jasper, and things go the way they often do in children's books when rich old people meet charming poor kids. (Looking at the books on my shelf I seem to have a thing for books like this...) But Jasper and his crotchety Father are soon brought around to the Peppers more positive outlook on life. These are kids who can take flour and water and raisins and make the creation of cookies into an event.

Perhaps I am just a sucker for a happy ending (with a few surprise twists) but these are books I have re-re-re-re-read. Before my own house got painted grey, it was known as The Little Brown House ... and I have a somewhat unreasonable attraction to one of the most obnoxious little girls names of all time -- Sophronia. (It's Greek for 'of wise and prudent mind.' How can you not love that?)

And of course [small spoiler] by book five or so, the baddest of the boys decided to become a Minister. And then he saves some people from drowning when the ship he is on catches fire. Whee!!!

Anyway... as with all these books of that era, it gets a little preachy about being good little boys and girls... but these kids are so damn cute that I just don't care!!

Links to info and some volumes full text:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Little_Peppers