Published in 1958, The Peppernuts tells the story of a slightly eccentric family and how they came to live in a house in what they call Paradise Valley. The Peppernut children, introduced in the first short chapter of the book, are:

• Flitter Peppernut, who likes to pretend that she is Princess Irmegard who lives in a castle,
• Captain Peppernut, named for his great-grandfather, a famous sea captain who may have also been a pirate, and
• Tua A and Tua B, twins, whose “mother had given them the same name because when she called, they both came anyway. But their father had thought this was confusing and he had added the A and the B for his own convenience.”

Father is an author, who according to the children spends his time reading and typewriting. Father is also “very clever and could fix anything he wanted to.” but Mother Peppernut knows that “he never wanted to do it today, always tomorrow.” Still, the Peppernuts move into a beautiful, almost enchanted, but broken down house in Paradise Valley. They are renting the house in Paradise Valley for the summer, but the family soon decide that they never want to leave. Will they find a way to stay in Paradise Valley?

This early chapter book, eight short chapters and 63 pages long, is a perfect story for beginning readers who are ready to graduate from the controlled vocabulary of the easy readers. It’s a story that features imaginative play, love and exploration of nature, hard work, and sacrifice for the sake of the family community. It’s a gentle story, but there are issues to be decided and problems to be overcome.

Maud and Miska Petersham formed the talented and prolific married team who wrote and illustrated together more than 50 children’s books in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. They collaborated on fiction and nonfiction stories, mostly for younger children with Miska and Maud Petersham both providing lovely illustrations to complement the text. Miska and Maud Petersham also illustrated many, many books written by other authors. The Petershams were one of the runners-up for the Caldecott Medal for An American ABC in 1942, and they won the 1946 Medal for The Rooster Crows, a collection of American nursery rhymes and jingles.