Finally a Book Review: Cheaper by the Dozen

Okay, it took a while, but mostly because I got almost finished with this one ages ago and stalled - typical pattern of mine. So here you go, finally.

Overall: B
Artistic/Entertainment value: B+
Moral/Spiritual value: B (generally positive view of parents and family, negative aside about religion, some swearing and rebelliousness)
Age appropriateness: I'm bad at this only being familiar with toddlers - but with some censoring it's fun for the whole family.

A cute story about a family with twelve children in the early 20th century, this was fun to listen to but definitely deserves some caveats in terms of age-appropriateness. The vast majority of it is fun-loving big family hijinks, but there were several instances of swearing (D-word and even "Jesus Christ" once), and toward the end there are some references to sex as the girls grow up in the 20s and struggle for permission to wear bobbed hair and short skirts. Very tame by modern standards, but it might be a good section to skip with younger kids and discuss with older ones. One other aside asserts the father's disbelief in the Immaculate Conception - although it actually is referring to the virgin birth. Elsewhere it's clear that he's not a religious man, but he's not generally anti-religious (he even researches convents during the aforementioned teenage crisis with the girls). That's something that could be easily discussed or even left out in family reading without losing anything.

Don't let my caveats totally turn you off - I plan to read this one to Ellie eventually, although I'll probably skip certain chapters when she's younger.