Five little Peppers

These books were written by Margaret Sidney, and are set in the early 1900's I will try to put them in chronological order but I may get a little off.

The first one is titled 'Five Little Peppers and How They Grew'
It is about a family of five children; Ebenezer (Ben,) Mary (Polly,) Joel, David, Sophronia (Phronsie,) and their 'Mamsie' who, in spite of being extremely poor, manage to have bushels of fun. Phronsie and Ben get the measles, and Polly has to do all of the work, until she gets it worse than everyone, and cant see. Phronsie gets lost, and the occupants of the little brown house go into a frenzy trying to find her. that's how they meet Jasper King: the boy who saved Phronsie and they have lovely times that Summer. The next spring Polly goes and stays with Jasper and his father. eventually the whole family comes and they come to stay.

Five Little Peppers Midway
Now living at the Kings' home as cherished members of the family, the children, especially Polly,make the acquaintance of the unpleasant cousin Eunice Chatterton, who thinks the Kings are degrading themselves by associating with the Peppers. She hopes to turn Polly into a willing servant, but eventually decides to train Phronsie instead.

Five Little Peppers Abroad
As it says in the title, the Peppers are abroad in this book. Not all of them though, Ben, David, and Joel stay behind with their cousins. The rest are abroad, traveling through England, France, Holland, and Italy. They make friends with an Earl and his family, ending their journey with a visit to the Earl's estate.

Five Little Peppers at School
In this book, the Pepper children and their cousins are at school. The boys (except Jasper and Ben) are away at boarding school, and they get into fights etc. Polly is going to Miss. Salisbury's school for girls, and she always has a gaggle of giggling girls fighting over her. When Polly and her school mates are in a train accident, Polly finds out that a brakeman has died. She decides to try to help his family by raising money for them.

Five Little Peppers Grown Up
Polly is now a music teacher and is having trouble with fifteen year old Amy Loughead, one of her worst pupils, is begging her to give her extra lessons so she can prove to her older brother Jack that she's a good musician and worthy to be taken on his upcoming trip abroad. Joel, David, and Percy are going to collage. The family gets into a train wreck while going up to surprise Jasper.(Who is working for a printing business in New York.) Polly breaks her arm and Pickering almost dies.

These books can be a little annoying, because everyone is perfect and they almost never do anything wrong. If you can get past that though, they are very good stories. I am going to say that you could read this book at any age.