Sunday, August 20, 2006

Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Ages 8+

Usually I will try to make my reviews as soon as I've finished reading the book. This book was one we tried to read together last summer. Despite its age, it was curiously and offensively full of references to the Lord's name -- in vain! It was shocking, frankly!

I censored the language when necessary and forged ahead. A number of friends had read and recommended it for its humor, so I assumed there would be some redeeming quality to it if I just read long enough. There wasn't. It was funny at times, but its ugly elements tip the scale out of favor.

3/4 ths of the way into the book, we decided to skip to the end to tie up loose ends and be done with it. The family in the story simply disintegrated into a group of defiant, ungrateful, rebellious teens and the father succumbed to their pressure.

The lesson seemed to be, "compromise," and it was tragic.

I give this book a grade of "F."

2 comments:

Brenda said...

Oh my. I owned this book as a youngster and I can't remember any of that.

Guess I've changed a bit!

Tammy said...

I have this book which was given to me by someone due to the fact that my husband is one of 12 kids...but I haven't read it yet. Wow...not sure I want to!
I did love the old movie version (I think made in the 40's)- it was charming, and the children and family in general were portrayed as organized and basically respectful! I guess this is one case where the movie was better than the book! :)