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Cheaper by the DozenCheaper by the Dozen is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, published in 1948. The novel recounts the authors' childhood lives growing up in a household of 12 children. The bestselling book was later adapted into a feature film by Twentieth Century Fox in 1950 and followed up by the sequel, Belles on Their Toes (1950), which was adapted as a 1952 film.

Plot
The book tells the story of time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and their children as they reside in Montclair, New Jersey, for many years. Lillian Gilbreth was described in the 1940s as "a genius in the art of living".

The best-selling biographical novel was composed by two of the children, who wrote about their childhoods. Gilbreth's home doubled as a sort of real-world laboratory that tested her and her husband Frank's ideas about education and efficiency. The book is more of a series of stories, many of which are humorous, with little overarching narrative.

The title comes from one of Frank Sr.'s favorite jokes: it often happened that when he and his family were out driving and stopped at a red light, a pedestrian would ask, "Hey, Mister! How come you got so many kids?" Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say, "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know", and drive off.

At several points in the book, a total number of children is spoken of as being 12. In real life, although the Gilbreths had 12 children who survived infanthood, only up to 11 were living at the time of the stories. In fact, when Mary died of diphtheria at age five, seven of her siblings were not yet born, so there never were 12 children alive at the same time. The only chapter that mentions Mary by name is the one that tells the stories of the children's births; otherwise, she is not mentioned and her absence is not explained. It was not until the sequel, Belles on Their Toes, was published in 1950 that Mary's death is mentioned in a footnote. In the rest of the book, only the 11 children who lived to adulthood are mentioned by name. From oldest to youngest, they are Anne, Ernestine (Ern), Martha (Mart), Frank Jr., Bill, Lillian (Lill), Fred, Dan, John (Jack), Bob, and Jane.

The stories in the book are organized topically. They skip around in time, and the details of the timing are not always made clear. For example, Bill is mentioned as having been six-years-old at the time of the story in which he honks the car horn while his father is under the hood trying to fix the engine. This would have been around 1919, before the three youngest children were born, though this detail is not mentioned.

The book ends with the sudden death of Frank Sr, which occurred in 1924. At that time, the oldest child (Anne) was 20-years-old and the youngest (Jane) was nearly two-years-old.

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