Reviewed by Tabitha Thompson

Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson star in the 2005 movie version of Terry Ryan’s memoir which details how her mother kept a large family afloat during the post-war era by entering—and winning—the then prodigious numbers of local and national slogan, jingle, and poetry contests. The book is flooded with both her mother’s light-hearted poetry and the back story that inspired them, portraying her mother’s unfailing optimism and humor in spite of an alcoholic husband and a life always on the brink of bankruptcy.

In the Red
An old Christmas custom
            too strong to resist:
You run out of money
            but not out of list.

Ryan, like her mother, does not focus on the negative aspects of her life; she portrays her family with unblinking honesty through side details—allowing the reader to fill in the gaps of what must have been a difficult life—while she focuses on her mother’s incomparable capacity to use language to win desperately needed household items and cash to pay overdue bills.

In fact, one Christmas was entirely covered by the many odd prizes her mother received and stashed into her closet during the year:

• two four-foot-long stuffed tigers and a guitar for Barb and Betsy
• a pair of roller skates, a baseball bat, and a set of bongo drums for Dave
• a Gilbert microscope/laboratory set and a basketball for Mike
• a sleeping bag and fishing kit for Bruce
• a record player and an ink pen for [Terry Ryan]
• an electric shaver for Dad
• an Admiral clock radio, a new notebook, and a roll of postage stamps for Mom

Life in the Ryan household also includes a cat adopting a baby rooster, who at adulthood attacks all who enter their dilapidated property, her older brothers’ time as pitchers with the Detroit Tigers, and Ryan’s own poignant moments with her mother who helped her see that often even desperate situations could be handled with fortitude and a little ingenuity.