A truly charming and heartwarming book about the real-world efficiency experts Frank Gilbreth and his wife - plus their dozen children - written by two of the children (Frank Jr. and Ernestine).

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.

10/22/2009 - After another re-reading I want to emphasize two things: this is an extremely funny book, and it is also, at the end, a deeply moving one. It's quite dated, I'll admit; at one point the parents do a "minstrel" show for their kids, which may well offend some modern sensibilities. But I see no malice in it. Remember, it was written in 1948 about events from the 1910s through the early 1920s. The world was different then.

I shgould note that Lillian Gilbreth, the mother of the family was a distinguished scientist in her own right, and has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution and was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

The sequel s Belles on their Toes, which I've also reviewed.