Belles On Their Toes, by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

This is the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen, which I reviewed
some years ago.
If you aren’t familiar with that wonderful book, go read the review now.
I’ll wait.

Cheaper by the Dozen ends with the death of Frank Gilbreth,
motion studies expert and patriarch of a large family. His wife
Lillian, an equal partner in her husband’s motion studies work, must
decide whether to take the family to California, where the children can
be parceled out to various relatives, or to stay in New Jersey and try to
make her own way as a motion studies expert. She (with encouragement from
her children) chooses the latter. And just as the prior novel is the
story of Frank Gilbreth, Belles on their Toes is the story of
Lillian Gilbreth.

It’s as funny and heartwarming as its predecessor–I
enjoyed it thoroughly–though possibly a bit lighter weight, especially
toward the end. The two authors are the oldest boy and the
next-to-oldest girl, and both went off to college within a few years of
their father’s death. Consequently we cover just a few years in the
first half of the book, and a couple of decades in the second half.

Anyway, you should read it; it’s a classic.