Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Applewood Books)

This children's classic, first published in 1881, which tells the story of the widowed Mrs. Pepper and her five children-Ben, Polly, David, Joel, and Phronsie, continues to resonate with readers today. Without being saccharine, the book reveals the true value of family. When the children, or Five Little Peppers as they are known in Badgertown, wish they could afford a special birthday celebration for their mother, Mamsie, she says, with a smile like a flash of sunshine, "I don't want any other celebration . . . than to look around on you all. I'm rich now, and that's a fact." This is the first in a series of books about the inhabitants of the Little Brown House.