GoodReads Review: Cheaper By The Dozen

[bobquasit]

Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

A truly charming and heartwarming book about the efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, his wife, and their dozen children - written by two of the children.

This book was a massive best-seller back in its day. But as time passed, it went out of print and was forgotten and virtually unavailable for many years. I found a copy tucked onto a shelf at a rented vacation cabin on a lake in Maine; the shelves were simply packed with old books, including many issues of Reader's Digest Condensed Classics. Cheaper By The Dozen is not great literature, I suppose. But it's a touching and entertaining window into a time now long gone.

Please do not mistake it for the current movies of the same title, which have as little to do with the book as Eddie Murphy's Doctor Dolittle movies have to do with Hugh Lofting's beloved classic books for children.

The movies should be forgotten. The book, on the other hand, is still worth remembering and rereading.

View all my reviews.

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Indeed. A lovely book. I do have a soft spot for the older film and its sequel.

(I suspect the book is one of the reasons tigermoth ended up in Quality)