Great book by Margaret Sidney. 5 kids and their adventures growing up poor, before electricity was commonplace. I read it a long long time ago and still remember stuff like how Polly had to keep stuffing the rusted hole in the back of the woodstove full of pieces of an old bootsole. Horrible things happen to these kids – their family has no money and suddenly, they need it to take care of a deathly sick kid – but there’s an unexpectedly happy ending, yay! Good for 4th-6th grade, more or less.