This well researched title about the five identical Dionne sisters begins with their birth in 1934 Canada. With few resources in the little farming family itself, and the primitive rural medicine of the time, it's truly a wonder that any of the babies survived the midwife assisted births. But, then, they lived.
And, suddenly, the Depression era world wanted to know all about these little darlings! Who would take care of them? The government got involved to help provide the very best of medical care, child development information, a warm and safe environment, and everything the sisters could need...in fact, everything, but a loving family life.
The author does a masterful job of telling the story of all the attention, the marketing, and general tourist attraction nature of the girls' life. Only when they are not little and quite so cute, does the family reunite in a big house with all of the Dionne sisters and brothers and parents together. Even then, life is not sunny though.
Photos are included to show the Dionne quintuplets as children, teens, and adults. The author begins each chapter with a newspaper headline. Updates with quotes from interviews of the surviving adult women show how they felt about their family, their schooling, their lives, each other, and their ultimate attempts to be themselves as well as part of such a historic group.
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