| The CBB http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/ | |
| DISCUSSION: Books about large
families http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5815 |
|
| Author: | macyrose [ Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | DISCUSSION: Books about large families |
|
I've always enjoyed reading books about large families (even before I read the CS books and met Jo's large one) and I was wondering if anyone else shares this fascination. My favourites are Cheaper By the Dozen, Belles on Their Toes and all the others by Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth (eleven children and one who died young), The Story of the Trapp Family Singers and sequels by Maria von Trapp (ten children), Who Gets The Drumstick by Helen Beardsley - the real family behind the movie Yours, Mine and Ours (twenty children), a little known one called And Then There Were Eight by journalist Paul Molloy (eight children) and The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss (twelve children). And I have to include the two Karen books Karen and With Love From Karen by Marie Killilea just because they're my favourites of all even though their family had only five children! | |
| Author: | violawood [ Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
It's a long time since I read it but I liked *Spencer's Mountain* by Earl Hamner Jr (the book - and family - The Waltons was based on). I love the One End Street stories - with seven children. Try some Charlotte Yonge - much admired by EBD of course. It did take me a couple of tries to get into her - but well worth it:-) *The Daisy Chain* is one of her best known books I think and has a family of eleven children. | |
| Author: | macyrose [ Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
Welcome to the CBB violawood! How could I have forgotten The Waltons (seven children) one of my favourite tv shows and the books it was based on? I remember reading The Daisy Chain a long time ago too.  And I
also forgot the Elsie books by Martha Finlay - Elsie had eight children.
| |
| Author: | ness [ Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:23 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
Karen is one of my favourite books ever. It really affected me when I read it and is one of the reasons I became a paediatrician. | |
| Author: | violawood [ Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:45 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
Thank you for the welcome  That's a
lovely message, Ness - I've never come across the Karen books tho' I've
heard of them - I'll keep looking out for them.I can't believe I forgot Antonia Forest's eight Marlows although she's rather a 'love it or hate it' author I thought
of another lovely one just as I was going to sleep last night - *Afke's
Ten*. Do you know it, Macyrose? Perhaps rather sentimental (it's an older
book) but I loved it as a child. | |
| Author: | MaryR [ Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
Like Macyrose, I can thoroughly recommend 'Karen' and 'With Love from Karen', by her Karen's Marie. They were my comfort reads for years as a teenager. Macyrose was the one who put me in touch with their website.
| |
| Author: | Maeve [ Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
There's also Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner. And of course, the Trevennors in Gerry Goes to School have seven children also and are a wonderfully jolly family. | |
| Author: | Kathy_S [ Mon Mar 16, 2009 2:58 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
That's a pretty inclusive list! I'd love to know the names of any books by the Gilbreths beyond Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes. The only others I can think of with largish families just now are the Hilda van Stockum's Mitchells (The Mitchells, Canadian Summer, Friendly Gables), who have 8 by the 3rd volume, and Norma Johnston's Sterlings, who end up with 7 (The Keeping Days, The Glory in the Flower, The Sanctuary Tree, A Mustard Seed of Magic, plus sequels featuring Bron's daughter). And I don't know that you'd call it a family series, really, but Will Stanton in the Dark is Rising series is one of 10. Large families are a given if you require a 7th son. I'm not sure where you draw the cut-off. I grew up seriously thinking that the "average family of four" meant four children, which seemed to be borne out by most family-centered books. Four each of L.M. Alcott's March family, Elizabeth Enright's Saturdays; Eleanor Estes' Moffat family. Patsy of The Girl Scouts Mystery Series has a brother and 2 sisters. L'Engle's Murry and Austin families have four children each, as do L.M. Weber's Malones and the Ingalls family of Laura Ingalls Wilder (fictionally anyhow, since they leave out the son who died young). There are four Bobbsey Twins, and Trixie Belden has 3 brothers. Five Walkers in Arthur Ransome's Swallows & Amazons etc.; the Five Little Peppers; five in Margaret Bell's series that begins with Watch for a Tall White Sail. I think Sydney Taylor's All-of-a-Kind Family of 5 daughters add a brother later -- not sure -- and the Carrs in the What Katy Did series and the Bedfords in L.M. Weber's Katie Rose series have 6 children. I actually go blank trying to think of series with smaller protagonist families that don't feature orphans or half orphans. Um. The D's (Ransome) and Laura & Amy (Marilyn Sachs) and Beezus & Ramona (Beverly Cleary) have both parents. Surely there were many more, but they don't jump out at me.... Betsy Ray (Maud Lovelace) has two sisters & Tib Müller 2 brothers, but they are offset by Tacy being one of 11. I wonder sometimes if EBD didn't also grow up thinking that normal average families had a fair number of children -- and that her own, with just the one brother, was only so small because of the absent father. | |
| Author: | Joey [ Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:41 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Books about large families |
|
I second the recommendation for Seven Little Australians - I've read it so many times and I still laugh till my sides ache, and cry at the end. The sequels are worth reading, too - The Family at Misrule, Little Mother Meg and Judy and Punch (which is a retrospective written thirty years later at the request of a fan, but it's stll very good). | |
| All times are UTC [ DST ] | |
| Powered by phpBB © 2000,
2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB
Group http://www.phpbb.com/ | |