<Tr> <Th> ISBN </Th> <Td> 0 - 06 - 076313 - 2 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Followed by </Th> <Td> Belles on Their Toes (1950 book; 1952 film) </Td> </Tr> <P> Cheaper 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 kids . 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 . </P> <P> The book tells the story of time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and their children (said to be 11 at the start of the movie and 11 actually appear on film, but a 12th is born by the end,), as they reside in Montclair, New Jersey for many years . This fictionalized version tells the story of real - life pioneering industrial / organizational psychologist Lillian Gilbreth, her husband, and children . Lillian Gilbreth was described in the 1940s as "a genius in the art of living ." The film was based on the best - selling biographical novel that two of her twelve children 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 efficiency . </P>

Is cheaper by the dozen a true story