A review by ashleygsiler
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

4.0

This is a really sweet, straight forward simple family story that champions family closeness, kindness, and generosity. The Pepper family is very poor, but kind and humble, and is always helped out by their friends and neighbors. Their sweetness of spirit means everyone loves them and wishes to help them, so the dangers they face never seem to put them in real peril. Though it’s easy to get swept up in the sweetness of this book, it was striking to me to realize the depths of the Pepper’s challenges—they all get measles, they are all on the cusp of starvation, they don’t ever get to celebrate holidays, and were it not for a close community network and a long lost wealthy cousin to support them, their story would have ended very differently. This book seems to say that if you work hard, and are always kind, and always loving to your family and neighbors, things will work out for you, which is a sweet sentiment but perhaps one that hasn’t aged very well. Nevertheless this is a charming book, and definitely one worth reading.