No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. Finally there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline. How they all survive such escapades as forgetting Frank Jr. in a roadside restaurant or going on a first date with Dad in the backseat or having their tonsils removed en masse will keep you in stitches. You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Gay and lighthearted...One of the most amusing books.” (The Chicago Sun-Times)
“Always entertaining, occasionally hilarious, occasionally touching....Sound Americana.” (Saturday Review of Literature)
"Instructive, funny, and very readable." (School Library Journal)
“Always entertaining, occasionally hilarious, occasionally touching....Sound Americana.” (Saturday Review of Literature)
"Instructive, funny, and very readable." (School Library Journal)
From the Publisher
No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First, there are a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert who believes a family can be run just like a factory. And there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline. How they all survive such escapades as forgetting Frank, Jr., in a roadside restaurant or going on a first date with Dad in the backseat or having their tonsils removed en masse will keep you in stitches. You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I used to giggle over this book as a kid. It was a huge hit amongst my classmates, and we wore through several copies of Cheaper By the Dozen.
The Gilbreth family of 12 kids, parented by efficiency experts Lillian and Frank, were a bit eccentric and very funny. I still can remember the line one of the kids rapped out to a guest at dinner "Please, we are NOT in the mood for an organ recital." This was the standard reprimand for belching in the family and never intended for public airing.
The Gilbreths were actually serious innovators of efficiency for the new factory assembly lines, figuring out the number of movements needed to complete a task and establishing a unit of work movement called the Therblig. They were also warm, funny, loving parents and their story is a good one to read out loud to kids, who invariably love this book.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
A Kid's Review
Format:Paperback
Has a story been so good that it made you laugh out loud? Well Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carry wrote an excellent biography of their childhood titled, "Cheaper by the Dozen." It is a very funny book. It is full of all the adventures the Gilbreth family went throgh in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Can you imagine having to take care of 12 kids and a dog? That would be a pretty hard job. I love reading this book especially when their father (Mr. Gilbreth) was teaching the kids Morse code. All over the house on every wall was Morse code. The kids had to find out what they said. Some would say, "Go to my room and under my bed is a deck of cards."
I encourage any one who loves non-fiction biography to read this book. I am sure you will like it too. If you don't like it in the beginning you should stick with it because it gets extremely good at the end.
31 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By Barbara
Format:Paperback
The first thing I have to say about this book is that it's funny and will make the reader understand how a super large family really can make it financially.
I read this book the first time because it was required in junior high (now known as middle school). I just read it again with my teenage daughters to maybe bring some understanding to them about saving time and money and that time is money. This father is the king of creative spending and overlapping chores to save time.
A very enjoyable book to read. This is an excellent book to co-read with your children of any age and might help you get a few frugal points accross to them.
It's a comical read laced with some very neccesary ideas of financial knowledge.
This is a quick book to read, and in my case a shared time of family financial understanding. Don't pass up reading this fun book. It'll make you laugh and think..."That's a good idea." reading about dad's fanatical penny pinching ways.
A great story that everyone should read.
I read this book the first time because it was required in junior high (now known as middle school). I just read it again with my teenage daughters to maybe bring some understanding to them about saving time and money and that time is money. This father is the king of creative spending and overlapping chores to save time.
A very enjoyable book to read. This is an excellent book to co-read with your children of any age and might help you get a few frugal points accross to them.
It's a comical read laced with some very neccesary ideas of financial knowledge.
This is a quick book to read, and in my case a shared time of family financial understanding. Don't pass up reading this fun book. It'll make you laugh and think..."That's a good idea." reading about dad's fanatical penny pinching ways.
A great story that everyone should read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining
It was fun to read about one of the early job efficiency experts. Quite novel child rearing and teaching methods.
Published 17 hours ago by Celia Gumm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and Easy to Read
This book is one of my favourites as it candidly tells the tale of life in a 12-children household. The authors are telling their story of their childhood, with their father as the... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Wild Blue
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books of my childhood.
On my 14th birthday, my sister gave me a book called "Cheaper by the Dozen". It had a picture of some kids in a buggy on the front, and the following summary on the back... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Vedang
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cover is deceiving.
From the cover, I thought the story line was the remake with Steve Martin but it was the story line that I wanted with William Powell.
Published 3 months ago by Gayle A. Erickson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful
This book is hilarious. We have been reading it with my 7th grade class and they really enjoy it. They wish it had pictures inside, but it is a great chapter book.
Published 5 months ago by Lovetoread88
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious and fun for the family, some inappropriate words.
Our family loves this story. It is very funny and heart warming. There are, however, a number of inappropriate words which we have had to black out.
Published 5 months ago by Stanley S. Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting and helpful
I'm a student in Industrial Engineering, and this is the reading book required by our introduction course of IE manufacturing system and service system. I really love it! Read more
Published 6 months ago by weikao wu
4.0 out of 5 stars
Life with Father updated for the 1920s
To put it succinctly, "Cheaper by the Dozen" is a slightly modernized version of "Life with Father". Read more
Published 7 months ago by Rob Slaven
5.0 out of 5 stars
America in the 1910's.
Famous memoir about Frank Gilbreth (a pioneer in motion study) is not only funny but interesting as a period piece; America in the 1910's. Easy reading.
Published 8 months ago by J. Rodeck
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't Stop Laughing
This book, although written in the mid-20th century, is a very fresh and witty true story about the Gilbreth family. It takes place from around 1900-1924. Read more
Published 10 months ago by PianoGirl
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 1
book:
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Belles on Their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- 101 Read-Aloud Classics: Ten-Minute Readings from the World's Best-Loved Children's Books by Pamela Horn on 5 pages
- Dicing with Death: Chance, Risk and Health by Stephen Senn in Front Matter, and page 214
- Hilary Duff: A Not-So-Typical Teen (Young Profiles) by Nancy Krulik on page 64, and page 65
- Respect: Women and Popular Music by Dorothy Marcic on page 6, and page 80
- The Sum of Our Discontent: Why Numbers Make Us Irrational by David Boyle on page 100, and Back Matter
See all 100 books citing this book
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