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    Cheaper By the Dozen
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    Cheaper By the Dozen
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    Cheaper By the Dozen
    Audiobook6 hours

    Cheaper By the Dozen

    Written by Frank B. Gilbreth

    Narrated by Dana Ivey and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Count 'em-a dozen carrot topped, freckle-faced kids. Dad, a jovial optimist, successful inventor and efficiency expert is fond of doing his work at home. Mom, a psychologist, is busy putting everything she knows into practice.

    Listen along and discover the strange things that happen when Dad's experiments run awry…how Frank Jr. gets left behind at a roadside restaurant…how the whole clan has their tonsils out en masse…experience a first date with Dad in the backseat, or treeing a peeping Tom...You can be sure they're not only cheaper, they're funnier by the dozen.


    From the Compact Disc edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 23, 2003
    ISBN9781400085767
    Author

    Frank B. Gilbreth

    Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. (1911–2001) served as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy during World War II, earning the Bronze Star and Air Medal for his valor in the campaigns in the South Pacific. After the war, he worked for the Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, as a columnist and reporter. His books include How to Be a Father and Time Out for Happiness, and the classics Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes, both coauthored with his sister Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. In 1950, Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth were corecipients of the French International Humor Award for Cheaper by the Dozen. 

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    Reviews for Cheaper By the Dozen

    4/5

    814 ratings37 reviews

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    • 5/5
      In my first management course in graduate school I learned about scientific management and motion study. This wasn’t my first introduction to Frank Gilbreth, Sr., and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, though. I had already met them as the parents of a dozen children through the memoir written by two of their children and the movie based on the book. It’s been long enough since I’ve read the book that it was a fresh experience for me. The brother and sister who co-authored the book tell stories from their childhood episodically rather than chronologically. They write of parents and siblings with genuine affection. Many of the stories are laugh-out-loud funny. I had a happy childhood myself, and yet I found myself wishing I could have been among the Gilbreth dozen.
    • 5/5
      For students who enjoy historical, realistic fiction, it doesn't get much better (or funnier) than Cheaper by the Dozen. This is the true story of a family of twleve children, run by scientific parents, in the 1910s and 20s. Some of the chapters are so funny that kids will find themselves crying out of laughter. This is a book probably best for 4th and 5th grade readers, but again, one that probably anyone would enjoy.
    • 4/5
      Great book!
    • 3/5
      I have some very fond memories of reading this book about a decade ago in the seventh grade. At the time I found it to be hilarious and a large part of me longed for a family with so many siblings. It's funny what time can do to alter your perspective. This time while I was reading this novel I wasn't struck so much by how funny it was. Instead I found myself gathering parenting tips and ideas for helping children learn. While I still enjoyed myself, the entertainment factor had decrease substantially since my first read. It's nice to know though that some book have the ability to grow with you.

      The only reason I have this at a 3 instead of a 4 is simply because I found myself trudging along waiting for it to just end already.
    • 5/5
      This was a really excellent story about an efficiency expert and his massive family. He came up with all manner of ways to teach his twelve children - everything from language records while they brushed their teeth to morse code written on the walls of the bathroom. Their father's escapades didn't end there, and the book is filled with stories about all the crazy things he did (very often in the name of efficiency). The stories are well written and funny.
    • 5/5
      tales of growing up in a large, loving family. Americana at its finest.
    • 4/5
      This was a delightful, nonfiction reread. It is the biography of the family of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, pioneers of time and labour saving engineering. They had twelve children, which was about as horrifying to many back then as it is to many today, and the eccentricities of their dad combined with the energy and imagination of twelve children gave plenty of humorous and inciteful fodder for this book, which was co-written by two of the children.

    • 5/5
      Cheaper by the Dozen is probably one of the books I've had the most fun reading. This is the story of Frank Gilbreth, his wife, and their twelve children around the turn of the 20th century. It's an account, written by two of the twelve children, of the many interesting and humorous events that they witnessed growing up in such a large family. Family life is made even more enjoyable by their extremely unique father who was a pioneer of motion-study, and who did such things as covering the walls of their home with lessons about astronomy, Morse code, etc.

      In real life, Frank Gilbreth was the foremost expert in the country on motion study and its effects. Transferring this knowledge to his home life, Frank attempted to raise his twelve children according to his own unique set of rules and regulations. The result was sometimes catastrophic, sometimes brilliant, and always funny. These twelve lively kids make the book fun to read and I loved the variety of stories that made their lives memorable. Every child is so unique and by the end of the book, I really felt that I was part of the family.

      I've probably read this book a half dozen times over the past fifty years. It's serious, funny, and sad in some places. I found this charming story to be captivating, motivational, heartwarming, and humorous. There are so many hilarious anecdotes I was constantly in laughter and tears. The book is full of humorous events including family trips in the car which always caused people to stare, family council meetings, and one of the most memorable, a visit from a woman representing birth control who had no idea how large the family was. I highly recommend this wonderful story about an interesting real-life family.
    • 5/5
      Hilarious, one of my favorite books when I was growing up.
    • 4/5
      This is a classic, based upon the lives of the Gilbreth family from the early 1900s.Dad is an efficiency expert, and brings his work into his home, which consists of his wife and dozen children. The story of their lives is told by two of the oldest children, and is full of love, humor and pathos.Forget any movie, this book is a delight to read, and reread.
    • 4/5
      Cheaper by the dozen, by Frank Gilbreth Jr., Tells the story of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and there twelve children. The Gilbreths were efficiency experts and advised mainly industrial plants. The story focuses on the home life of the Gilberths before Frank Gilberth’s death. He attempted to adapt his efficiency techniques to house hold life. He employed efficiency techniques to things such as: meals, bathing, and studying. He wanted the children to skip as many grades as possible through efficiency. I would use excerpts of this book on the use of motion studies in industry.As the author was present for the events of the book I would say that most of the material is not made up. However, as some time past between the events of the book and when it was written, his memory was probably somewhat hazy. Consequently, some of the dialog is probably made up. As to information, the events are factual and have been verified through industrial and school records, and interviews with other Gilberth children. The structure of the book is topical and chronological. The book is all narrative text. It tells the story of the Gilberth family. There is minimal expository text. There is some explanation on efficiency techniques but that is all. There are many literary devices employed by the author. He uses: diction, metaphor and telling details to tell the story of the Gilberths. The book has a strong author’s voice. The book has the characteristic style of Frank Gilberth Jr. writing. There is a very small amount of front material, a forward and a preface. However, there is no back material. There is also no visual material the book is completely textual.
    • 4/5
      A truly charming and heartwarming book about the efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, his wife, and 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.

      Also, in my initial review I was unintentionally unfair to Lillian Gilbreth, the mother of the family; she 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 was Belles on their Toes, and I'll be looking for it - as well as other books by Frank and Ernestine.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful "slice of life" book, two of the twelve Gilbreath children give us a glimpse into the family that raised twelve children while building careers for both parents that are still admired today. Frank and Lilian Gilbreath are the founding "parents" of the field of Industrial Engineering, and the methods that they used on their children are both fascinating and intriguing. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I read this book because I love the movie by the same name. Of course, I refer to the movie starring Clifton Webb and not the cheap remake with Steve Martin. I wanted to love this book and, in fact, I did love this book, but one thing kept me from giving it 5 stars. I could not get past the subtle (or not so subtle) racism from the mother. She had a habit of saying when something or somebody was unsavoury or dirty, that they were being "Eskimo". I know that the time of this book was the early 20th century and that this kind of racism was common and acceptable but today it is not and it left me with a mild distaste for the book as a result.That aside, this book nicely tells about an amazing family headed by a remarkable man and woman who were ahead of their time when it came to efficiency studies.
    • 4/5
      This book has absolutely nothing to do with the recent Steve Martin movies. It’s a nonfiction account, written by two of the children, of their experiences growing up in a family with twelve kids. Their eccentric father was a motion study analyst and taught them the more efficient way to do everything! He even showed them (while he was fully clothed) the fastest way to wash yourself with soap when bathing. One of my favorite anecdotes from the book was when the family was visited by a representative of the national birth control society. They were there to ask the mother if she wanted to get involved with their organization (not knowing how many kids she had). Then the father called all 12 children downstairs and the woman just about had a heart attack. Their father was incredibly focused on teaching them. He quizzed them on multiplication tables, taught them how to type and constantly had recordings going that taught them how to speak French and German. He talked their teachers into frequently letting them skip grades because the kids excelled at such young ages. Unfortunately, as great as that sounds, it’s incredibly hard on the kids to have to make new friends and start all over in a new grade. "In those days women who were scholars were viewed with some suspicion. When mother and dad were married, the Oakland paper said, 'Although a graduate of the University of California, the bride is, none the less, an extremely attractive young woman.'" 
    • 5/5
      True Story of an amazing family at the turn of the century. Wonderful read. Written by two of the children.
    • 4/5
      After the last book I read, I needed a book like this. Short, easy to read, cute, and fun. I didn't realize, however, that the stories in the book are true, as remembered by two of the twelve Gilbreth children.
    • 5/5
      I have read and re-read this story so many times. It was so much fun to get involved in the family dynamics. If you look to deeply, or attempted this type of "managed" family approach, the kids would probably need therapy. Just goes to show you how soft kids are these days :)
    • 3/5
      I am probably going to be flayed alive by fans of this classic bit of kiddie lit, but I didn't love it. As a matter of fact, far from wondering what it would have been like to have grown up in their family, I was beyond grateful that I didn't. Usually I am all for daydreaming and inserting myself in the appealing, old-fashioned world but not in this instance. I do understand that writing this book was probably a labor of love on Gilbreth and Carey's parts. And I am quite certain that they would be horrified to know that I found their father, at least as depicted here, to be an unpleasant sort. The idea of running a family as a factory or business might seem quaint and entertaining from a distance but it struck me as distasteful. I was particularly interested in the assertion by the authors that he respected children and that's why so many children liked him. Then, completely without irony, they said that he would cut off their dinner conversation by declaring it "not of general interest" and go on to expound on whatever had fascinated or consumed him that day. Respectful? Wow. That's not my understanding of the word. But the look at the times and the inner workings (even if unusual) of a large family was interesting. Mother Lil was really rather marginalized in this book but I suspect she takes center stage in the next book so perhaps the pair are intended to be seperate portraits of their parents in the milieu that the children knew them best: the family. It is also worth noting that there was only about one year in which all 12 children were at home since the age span between the first and the twelfth is great enough. And since Frank Sr. died when the youngest was merely two, his jovial response to people's wonder at so many children that they come cheaper by the dozen was really only true at the very tail end of his life. The book is almost episodic in nature, with the interesting bits recounted, leaving the narrative flow a bit choppy. And figuring out who all the children were? Don't count on it as they aren't described distinctly enough to differentiate amongst them. But this is a classic and people do love it so perhaps I was just in a terrible mood or completely missed the elusive something that draws readers to a book. The family antics were occasionally entertaining but I had a hard time getting past my dislike of the not quite so genial patriarch. Heresy, but I prefer the movie versions.
    • 4/5
      Wonder book. I read this one with my wife. Difficult to read aloud in some places as my allergies acted up for some reason. :)
    • 5/5
      A family classic. The antics of the Gilbreth family, with motion-study expert father and psychologist mother never cease to amuse. While this is not a story so much as a series of anecdotes, those anecdotes serve as wonderful exposition to a very amusing family, as well as a look back at times when cars were new, bathing suits had tights, and short hair was a serious hurdle to be overcome with protective parents.To those who have seen the recent movie--The Gilbreth family is run with an efficiency and efficacy that Steve Martin could never dream of. They are not the same at all. Please read the book; it's also funny, but in a much more sophisticated way.To those who have seen the older movies with Myrna Loy, etc: That movie does an excellent job incorporating many of the funniest anecdotes in the book, while creating a story line for them to hang on. The book includes a few more (you might be particularly interested in "Kissing Kin" and "Chinese Cooking," which detail the family's visit to relatives, "Nantucket" and "The Rena" which describe summer escapades, and "Touch" which tells the story of 'Moby Dick,' the white typewriter).
    • 4/5
      1117 Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Casey (read 20 May 1971) I did no post-reading note on this book, but I remember I read it because my wife said it was funny and I should. I found it a light enjoyable reading experience. See:Cheaper by the Dozen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    • 3/5
      I first read this book in fifth or sixth grade and found it really entertaining. It's the story of a real family, the Gilbreths, whose parents were industrial engineers and efficiency experts and seemed to have a system for everything. They also had twelve children. It's a cute, funny story that is an easy read.
    • 5/5
      Wow! I don't even know hot they can call the movie 'based on' this book when the two are NOTHING alike. The ONLY similarity between the book and movie are that there are 12 children. That's IT!

      The book is about the Gilbreths who grew up between 1900-1930 so as you can imagine, their lives were nothing like the kids depicted in the movie version. The father is an engineer who studies motion. His job is to study how people do certain jobs and figure out how they can do them faster.

      In the book, there are 6 girls and 6 boys. In the movie there are 5 girls and 7 boys. In the book the father is tall and plump. In the movie he's tall and thin. Even the order of kid's is wrong. In the book, the oldest three are girls. In the movie It's boy, girl, girl. In the book, they used to have a collie but when he died, they didn't have another dog. In the movie they have a pitbull. In the book there are no multiples. In the movie there is a set of twins. See what I mean?

      Anyways back to the book. It was really interesting to read about life in the 1910's. Although the kids all went to school, the father taught them things at home like languages, astronomy and morse code. The methods are described in the book and I found them interesting and in some cases, worth trying. There are some great ideas for homeschoolers in the book.

      My favourite part is when the Mother is recruiting women to help with church fund-raising. One woman says she would help if she had the time but with three young sons, she is quite busy. She asks the mother if she has any children. The following continues:

      Mother: Oh, yes.
      Woman: Any boys?
      M: Yes, indeed.
      W: May I ask how many?
      M: Certainly. I have six boys.
      W: Six boys! Imagine a family of six!
      M: Oh, there're more in the family than that. I have six girls too.
      W: I surrender. When is the next meeting of the committee? I'll be there, Mrs. Gilbreth, I'll be there

      I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE. Don't be fooled by the movie (which I did enjoy, number #2 as well) this book is quite different. In fact I'd like to see a movie that is REALLY 'based-on' this book. Oh and I guess they wrote more books about their family too. They will be added to my TBR list.
    • 4/5
      I loved this story. I have read it several time and love how Mr. Gilbreth was into motion study and how to save time in everything. Though I would not have liked to be part of the mass tonsilectomy!
    • 5/5
      A favorite for the large family to read together. Be aware of mild language.
    • 5/5
      I was not expecting this to be a good book when I picked it up because it was writen so long ago, so I was happily suprised when I started reading. This is a light-hearted and inspiring book. It chronicles the life of a family of twelve living under the roof of a motion study engineer. Everything is done in the most productive way and the strive for efficiency makes for a humorous story. The closeness of this rather large family and their support for one another represented perfectly in this humorous novel.
    • 4/5
      A thoroughly amusing book written by two of the dozen children of efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth. They tell of many amusing incidents in their lives up until the death of their father in 1924. A light-hearted and interesting read.
    • 4/5
      Back in 1964 I read this book at high school in Amsterdam. It was a funny story; I still remember many details but will not reveal it here. I can recommend it.
    • 5/5
      The story of the Gilbreth family is amusing and touching, particularly if one ignores the travesty that was the most recently produced movie 'based' on this book. It is the story of how two people decided to have twelve children and then proceeded to do just that and how their father managed to keep a tight ship running with the use and knowledge of time study. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the time period, has enjoyed reading about other family-type biographies or simply likes a touching story.