"The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" by Terry Ryan

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan

I will just begin by saying that this is the funniest book I have read in a long time. If you are searching for an entertaining book that is a fast read then this should be at the top of your list!

The heroine of the book is Evalyn Ryan, mother of ten kids and wife of an alcoholic. Terry Ryan, the author, is the sixth of Evalyn's ten children and wrote this memoir to share with others just how incredibly upbeat her mother was even when the going got tough. Evalyn Ryan, during the "contest era" of the 1950's and 1960's, had a penchant for writing short poems and one-liners and used her talents to enter hundreds of contests sponsored by various companies, helping to support her large family with awards and cash prizes that, in many cases, came just in the nick of time.

Throughout the book the pages are peppered with Evalyn's contest entries, poems and short stories written for newspapers and her upbeat wit and wisdom. With a husband who spent about a third of his income on alcohol (from a pay check that was not enough for a family of twelve to start with), and who was even sometimes violent, Evalyn could have spent her life being angry and bitter but she managed to pick up her feet and keep going with a smile and taught her ten children to do the same. She also taught her children that miracles happen every day, as is apparent in reading about the life of the Ryan family.

Though her contest entries are mostly very clever I enjoyed her short poems even more. Here are a couple that left me laughing:

Hippopotapoem
Behold the hippopotamus
bestowing hippo kisses
Upon a hippopotamiss
Who's not his hippomissus.

But he's no hippocrit, is he,
This hippopotamister
Because the hippopotamiss
Is his little hipposister.
_____________________

Every time I pass the church
I stop and make a visit
So when I'm carried in feet first
God won't say, "Who is it?"

I am going to rate this book with **** stars. It is a delightful read, it is very well written (the author, Terry Ryan, is a technical writer by profession), and I found it fun to be transported into the full swing of the 1950's.