The Stories Polly Pepper Told to the Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown

Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop (pen name Margaret Sidney)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 452K words
Chapters: 46

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Stories Polly Pepper Told to the Five Little Peppers in the Little BrownAuthor: Sidney, Margaret, 1844-1924,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 18, 2015

Editor's review

This is one entry in American children's author Margaret Sidney's "Five Little Peppers" series, and the title states its contents: stories Polly Pepper tells to the five little Peppers in the Little Brown house. Framed by ordinary family life, the book sets short tales within scenes of children gathered to listen; the tone is gentle, valuing family affection, mutual help, and imagination, with the typical air of nineteenth-century American family reading. For readers studying the history of children's literature or series fiction, it helps explain a period approach centered on the family and linked by storytelling; for shared parent-child reading, its "story within a story" structure suits reading aloud in installments and inviting children to retell. The style is old-fashioned, with long sentences and some cultural background needing explanation. Treat it as a supplementary volume in the series, not the first book. The electronic edition comes from public-domain digitization and is easy to obtain and cite.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying nineteenth-century American children's literature
Parents and children seeking classic family reading
Readers who enjoy series fiction and story-collection structure
Teachers needing English children's literature materials

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plots and adventurous conflict
Children at the English beginner stage who cannot read long sentences independently
Readers expecting the complete beginning of the series' first volume
Families preferring the pace and language of contemporary children's fiction

Reading tips

First learn the basic character relationships of the Five Little Peppers series; the book will then read much more smoothly.
For shared reading, tell one or two stories at a time, then ask the child to retell or extend an ending.
Note the alternating structure of "telling scenes" and "story content" to appreciate how it is organized.
When old-fashioned expressions or cultural background appear, skip ahead to keep the story flowing and return later.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I read this directly without having read the Five Little Peppers series?

Yes, but this is a spin-off story collection whose characters and family background build on earlier works. Learning the basic setup of the five little Peppers and Polly Pepper first will reduce confusion; to enter the series from the beginning, start with earlier works.

What age is this book suitable for?

The content is family stories, suitable for primary-school children to hear or read, but the English original is nineteenth-century in style with long sentences; independent reading suits older children with some English foundation. For younger children, an adult should read aloud or use a translation.

Are the stories one continuous long narrative?

No. It consists of several short stories Polly Pepper tells the children, with an outer layer of the family listening scene and inner layers of separate small stories, so it can be read in installments rather than straight through in order.

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About the author

Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop (pen name Margaret Sidney) Author · American · 1844–1924

Margaret Sidney is the pen name of the American writer Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop. Born in 1844 and died in 1924, she is known for the children's literature series Five Little Peppers, which includes Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Five Little Peppers Midway, Five Little Peppers Grown Up, Five Little Peppers at School, The Adventures of Joel Pepper, and Ben Pepper. Centered on the Pepper children, the series depicts their family life, growth, and friendships in a warm, plain style that attends to everyday details and children's feelings. She published about forty-five works in all and founded the Children of the American Revolution; after her husband's death, she ran his publishing company. Public information is limited, and the details of her life are chiefly connected with her works and these activities.