The Five Little Peppers series was created by Margaret Sidney covering the life of five children with the surname Pepper. The Pepper children were very poor, and their widowed mother was left to raise them by herself. In order of age (descending), the children's names were Ben (Ebaniezer), Polly (Mary), Joel, Davie, and Phronsie. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew is the first book in the series. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Ben, Polly, Joel, Davie and baby Phronsie are the five children of the late Mr. Pepper and his hard-working wife. The family is desperately poor and Mrs. Pepper and Ben have to work out of the house to keep the home fires burning. Young Polly takes over the reins of the household and becomes a surrogate mom to her little brothers and sister. This heart-warming tale has provided hours of entertainment to generations of children and parents. Five Little Peppers and How they Grew by Margaret Si ...