Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Carey

For my second book, I read Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Carey. I chose to read this story because I had recently seen the movie and I wanted to see how much it differed from the book. It was not hard to find that the only thing the movie and book share is the title. I thought I would be able to compare the movie and the book in this blog to some extent, but literally nothing is the same except the number of children.



I liked the fact how character development was not a huge part of this book. If the authors had chosen to delve deep into each child's personality, the book would be as big as a dictionary. Instead, they chose to develop the family instead of every individual person. This not only allowed everybody to share the spotlight, but it also sent the message of how a family can be close, no matter how big it is. When a certain part of the book did focus on a specific child, they were easy to relate to by showing emotions that every human encounters. Embarassement was a prominent feeling among all the children. As you read the book, you find out their dad would not be considered normal. He would come and visit them during school hours and make sure they were behaving. He would also chaperone the older kids on dates. If my dad did that, I would probably go insane from embarassement! And that is exactly what happens to the children in the story. They are not portrayed as heavenly children that do not ever do anything bad. The authors show them as normal kids, faults and mischief included.

There really is nothing negative to say about this book. It was interesting, even though there was no specific plot. It provided emotion, but at the same time remained light and fun. The book was a joy to read!

One specific theme I picked up from the book was that anything can be done if you put your mind to it. Just the concept of a family with 12 kids sends this message. Most modern day parents would be freaked out if they had that many children to take care of. However, the dad and mom wanted this many kids and they were determined to raise them the best they could. Even though there were many problems and arguments, they would find a way to work it out. Another theme I saw was efficiency is important to accomlishing goals. The dad in the book is an expert on "motion study", the study of making labor more efficient. He not only uses this in the workplace, but in his household as well. He has a set schedule for all his children to do their chores and practice personal hygiene.

The whole familiy unit seems real and believable in this book. Nobody is perfect, including the parents. In many instances, the dad will crack a joke towards one of his kids. Later on, the same kid will say the same joke towards a guest, offending the visitor. The dad then sees his mistake and admits he was wrong. Everybody in this book seemed to remind me of myself. Even though I didn't go through the exact event the characters went through, I experienced something similar.