Spic-and-Span!: Lillian Gilbreth’s Wonder Kitchen (Great Idea Series)

Lillian and Frank Gilbreth had eleven children. The couple were both efficiency experts, working with companies to help them streamline manufacturing and making working environments better for the workers. When Frank unexpectedly dies, Lillian is on her own to raise the children. Companies in the 1920s did not hire women engineers. After many disappointments, she is able to find work. She also found raising eleven children required her efficiency expertise as well. From her needs at home came some of her best inventions – electric beaters, pedal-operated garbage cans, and door compartments in refrigerators. She also designed truly efficient kitchens.

Monica Kulling has very efficiently packed a lot of information into this fun picture book. Children will be fascinated to see how different the world was a hundred years ago and what challenges faced this family in that time. David Parkins’s illustrations are the perfect complement for the text and carry the readers back in time. This wonderful book will do a whole lot of teaching without ever tipping its educational hand to young readers. Parents will enjoy the journey as well as they read to the youngsters.