Friday, January 16, 2004
Read the book
Roger Ebert reviews Cheaper by the Dozen, a remake of a movie based on a book about Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their 12 children, written by the two oldest children, Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
From his review (and I tend to trust Ebert's reviews) my inclination is to skip the movie, stay home, and re-read the book, which was one of my favorites as a child. Even more of a favorite was the sequel, Belles on Their Toes, in which the Gilbreths cope with the loss of their patriarch (and a sibling), growing up in the 1920s, and having a mother who became an internationally recognized expert in a field (industrial management) that few women had even heard of at the time--although they used it, often brilliantly, in daily life.
One of the strengths of these two books is that Frank and Ernestine never get maudlin, and while it's obvious that they were very proud of their mother, they don't overdo that either. Both books are funny, and charming, and delightful to read, over and over. I always see several copies at the AAUW book sale; keep your eyes open for them in your own book sale adventures. There might even be an edition still in print.
BTW, I loved Ebert's reference to the bright orange binding. I can picture that binding too. That's part of the thing I love about vintage reading--Roger Ebert, who must be at least 20 years older than me, has the same memories of reading the same book that I have, that my mother has, that my sisters and my cousins have. All of us, at some point, curled up on a couch with Cheaper by the Dozen or Belles on Their Toes and drank a Coke or ate a peanut butter sandwich or an Eskimo Pie and escaped into the Gilbreths' well-ordered, efficient world for a while--and emerged better for it.
Roger Ebert reviews Cheaper by the Dozen, a remake of a movie based on a book about Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their 12 children, written by the two oldest children, Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.
From his review (and I tend to trust Ebert's reviews) my inclination is to skip the movie, stay home, and re-read the book, which was one of my favorites as a child. Even more of a favorite was the sequel, Belles on Their Toes, in which the Gilbreths cope with the loss of their patriarch (and a sibling), growing up in the 1920s, and having a mother who became an internationally recognized expert in a field (industrial management) that few women had even heard of at the time--although they used it, often brilliantly, in daily life.
One of the strengths of these two books is that Frank and Ernestine never get maudlin, and while it's obvious that they were very proud of their mother, they don't overdo that either. Both books are funny, and charming, and delightful to read, over and over. I always see several copies at the AAUW book sale; keep your eyes open for them in your own book sale adventures. There might even be an edition still in print.
BTW, I loved Ebert's reference to the bright orange binding. I can picture that binding too. That's part of the thing I love about vintage reading--Roger Ebert, who must be at least 20 years older than me, has the same memories of reading the same book that I have, that my mother has, that my sisters and my cousins have. All of us, at some point, curled up on a couch with Cheaper by the Dozen or Belles on Their Toes and drank a Coke or ate a peanut butter sandwich or an Eskimo Pie and escaped into the Gilbreths' well-ordered, efficient world for a while--and emerged better for it.
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 6:50 AM 
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