The Prize Winner Of Defiance Ohio

Mix together “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” or “The Glass Castle” (for the drunken dad and the poverty) and “Cheaper by the Dozen” or even our own home in Orem, Utah, in the 50's, and you get the feel of this book. Author Terry Ryan lived in my own era, and she captures it perfectly. Hey, their family......more

What I learned from this book is that you don't have to have a perfect life to be happy. Evelyn Ryan chooses to be happy in spite of numerous trials and setbacks, which would turn someone like me into a bitter old woman. Reading this book made me think that if she could raise her 10 children under h......more

I read this book several years ago, shortly after it was published, and I loved it. Entertaining, uplifting, and incredibly inspiring, it is the true story of a remarkable mother of 10 children who held her family together financially by clipping and using coupons, entering contests, and submitting......more

I really enjoyed this nonfictional account of a 1950s stay-at-home mom of ten children who kept the family clothed and fed by winning slogan contests. Her husband Kelly had a job at a machinery but drank away a big chunk of his paycheck (a pint of whiskey and a six pack of beer every night), so Evel......more

I don't want to mislead anyone. I usually reserve five star ratings for books that are life-changing and a profound reading experience, and this was neither. But, try as I might, I couldn't come up with a good reason to take off a star and felt dishonest doing it simply to preserve a snooty image. T......more