Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Aladdin Classics)
by Margaret Sidney
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Book Summary Information
Author: Margaret SidneyForeword: Ann M. Martin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-06-06
ISBN: 1416916172
Number of pages: 352
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Publisher: Aladdin
Book Reviews of Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Aladdin Classics)
Book Review: Charming but dated and overly dramatic
Summary: 3 Stars
I first read this book when I was about eleven, and decided to revisit it recently, about eighteen years later. Even though it's been many years since 19th century America was one of my favorite historical eras, I still found the book charming in its depiction of a simpler and slower-paced era, when they had things like wood-burning stoves, doctors making housecalls, horse-drawn carriages, routine piano lessons for young girls, and button-up shoes. It also makes one really appreciate the conveniences of modern life all the more, knowing the Peppers could never have dreamt such things could ever exist, like store-bought birthday cakes, vaccinations against scary dangerous diseases like measles (a disease which almost costs Polly her eyes), modern medicine, electric stoves, and mandatory free public education.
Rereading the book as an adult, though, I was quickly struck by how overly dramatic and cloyingly sentimental a lot of it is. The Peppers are just too good and happy, when one would expect that children in their situation (having to shoulder a lot of work for their young ages because they don't go to school and are needed to help run the household while their mother is working) might have been more cynical and world-weary. They had to take on so much adult responsibility when they weren't even teenagers yet, and accepted this as the normal course of things! (This really makes one appreciate how children today are no longer expected to carry so much responsibility and such a heavy work-load!) I don't remember my thoughts on this the first time around, but this time, I was really annoyed at how spoilt and coddled Phronsie is. Even being the baby of a family, I'd think that kids in this era would have been a lot *less* coddled and spoilt than they are today! Everyone was always letting her have her way and catering to her every whim. I groaned when she went wandering off for the THIRD time, and once again wasn't even yelled at or punished. Instead Mr. King got mad because no one was watching her. God forbid little Phronsie cry or be upset! She's the precious baby whom everyone must spoil and handle with kid gloves!
These people also cry, scream, or yell at the drop of a hat. There must be hundreds of exclamation points throughout the book, and a lot of italics too. Everything, no matter how minor, is magnified into a huge crisis or disaster. Something is always happening, and more often than not it's turned into a huge drama instead of being allowed to resolve normally. However, I do realise that this was written in 1880, when children's literature was still pretty much in its infancy. I can't really compare such an early example of children's lit to a more modern and sophisticated one and complain that they're not the same. Still, it is distracting from the story when there's almost never a moment of peace, and there's a a molehill being turned into a mountain in just about every single chapter. I prefer books that show instead of tell. The deus ex machina development near the end was also a bit much, adding even more incredulity to what was already (to me, at least) an bit of an unrealistic plot, a rich boy and his old sick father becoming friends with five poor kids and their mom and eventually moving all of them into their mansion, where the man's daughter and her three sons also already live. Even for a rags to riches story, that's a bit much!
Still, it is at heart a sweet charming story of a bygone era, and everyone does like a bit of escapism now and then, even when the plot twists strain the realm of the realistic and believable. And for people, young or not, interested in 19th century America, it really is a wonderful look into how our ancestors lived. It's also a fascinating look back at how children's literature used to be.
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