Short Synopsis
Dispatches from the new front lines of parenthood from two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene.

Full Synopsis
When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, "among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, gave birth to sixty-nine children in eighteenth-century Russia."

Greene is best known for her books on the civil rights movement and the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. But Melissa and her husband have also pursued a more private vocation: parenthood. When the number of children hit nine, Greene took a break from reporting. She trained her journalist's eye upon events at home. Fisseha was riding a bike down the basement stairs; out on the porch, a squirrel was sitting on Jesse's head; vulgar posters had erupted on bedroom walls; the insult niftam (the Amharic word for "snot") had led to fistfights; and four non-native-English-speaking teenage boys were researching, on Mom's computer, the subject of "saxing."

"At first I thought one of our trombone players was considering a change of instrument," writes Greene. "Then I remembered: they can't spell."

Using the tools of her trade, she uncovered the true subject of the "saxing" investigation, inspiring the chapter "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, but Couldn't Spell."

A celebration of parenthood; an ingathering of children, through birth and out of loss and bereavement; a relishing of moments hilarious and enlightening—No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is a loving portrait of a unique twenty first-century family as it wobbles between disaster and joy.

"Greene brings her well-honed research and reporting skills to this very personal story." ---The Washington Post

"An upbeat chronicle of a life that has been lived on the bright side of the road, its ruts beveled by naked love." ---Kirkus

"Astonishing and deeply humbling. . . . A lovely patchwork of moments from a house filled with love, life and acceptance." ---BookPage

"[A] whimsical, hilarious account." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"The Cheaper by the Dozen for a new planet." ---Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

"A truly heartfelt memoir." ---Booklist

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