The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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"What kind of Navy officer sits on his ship in the middle of the Mediterranean dreaming of gerbils" That's the question that Holly Robinson sets out to answer in this warm and rollicking memoir of life with her father, the world's most famous gerbil czar. Starting with a few pairs of gerbils housed for curiosity's sake in the family's garage, Donald Robinson's obsession with the "pocket kangaroo" developed into a lifelong passion and second career. Soon the Annapolis-trained Navy commander was breeding gerbils and writing about them for publications ranging from the ever-bouncy Highlights for Children to the erudite Science News. To support his burgeoning business, the family eventually settled on a remote hundred-acre farm with horses, sheep, pygmy goats, peacocks-and nearly nine thousand gerbils. From part-time model for her father's bestselling pet book, How to Raise and Train Pet Gerbils, to full-time employee in the gerbil empire's complex of prefab Sears buildings, Holly was an enthusiastic if often exasperated companion on her father's quest to breed the perfect gerbil. Told with heart, humor, and affection, The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter is Holly's ode to a weird and wonderful upbringing and her truly one-of-a-kind father.

Reviews

Wacky and tender, The Gerbil Farmers Daughter is as much a social history of the '60s as an intensely personal family memoir. Holly Robinson handles the heavy issues of longing and belonging with wonderful honesty and a light touch.
Stewart ONan, author of Songs for the Missing

"Journalist Robinson cheerfully recalls growing up with a closeted gerbil-breeder....Its a scenario that could have been lifted from a 1960s sitcom, but Robinson invests the narrative with pathos, good-natured moments of absurdity and plenty of keen humor....Daffy yet sweet and affecting."
Kirkus Reviews

Robinson writes with humor and honesty, creating a charming story, a reminder of how all the love and care in the world may not be enough, and a moving tribute to a father who, nonetheless, never stopped trying.
Booklist

"Robinson...wryly narrates this memoir about growing up with a stern navy father who abruptly takes up breeding the then little-known gerbil in the late 1960s....interspers[ing] her compelling narrative with accounts of gerbil mayhem.
Publishers Weekly

A delightful memoir about an unusual childhood, complete with a cast of characters led by an eccentric, forward-thinking father and his incredulous, rebellious kids. Think Cheaper by the Dozen--but with cute, furry rodents thrown in. I loved it!
Sandi Shelton, author of A Piece of Normal and What Comes After Crazy

What a delightful, delicious coming-of-age storyfilled witha cast of enchanting, eccentric, utterly memorable characters, and with what is most endearing: the author's affection for them. This is an engrossing tale of family life, and of the extraordinary menagerie that lies at the heart of their adventures. It is as if E. B. White, Gerald Durrell, and Calvin Trillin had conspired to write the funniest, most charming and unlikely of tales. Holly Robinson's touch is sure, deft, and lovingandThe Gerbil Farmers Daughter is a magical tale that will enthrall childrenand readersof all ages.
Jay Neugeboren, author of Imagining Robert and The Stolen Jew

What does one military man do when he retires from commanding a ship Why not build the worlds largest gerbil farm Holly Robinsons memoir vividly tells of her life growing up in a military family, and of her teenage years as one of the employees in her dads oddly successful, sometimes exasperating, often humorous livestock venture.
Douglas Whynott, author of Following the Bloom and A Country Practice

Holly Robinson reveals a fascinating, untold chapter in the history of the Mongolian gerbil in the United State as she brings us back to a time before play dates, bike helmets, or other adult meddling in private childhood affairs and tells with vivid clarity of growing up in America in the 60s - 70s, all the while struggling to hide a terrible family secretthe barns in the backyard house 9000 gerbils.
Donna Anastasi, President of the American Gerbil Society and author of The Complete Guide to Gerbil Care

In the long parade of memoirs American readers have seen in recent years, have you noticed how few make you laugh out loud Holly Robinson's book made me laugh so many times my cheeks were a little sore. Her portrait of a little-explored and often-comic landscape, along with the sure and funny narrative voice which is our tour-guide through family, gerbils, and love, is one of the best memoirs around. And her prose is sparkling, very particular, and always vivid.
Susan Straight, National Book Award finalist and author of A Million Nightingales and Highwire Moon

As improbable as it was that Holly Robinsons crisp and buttoned down Navy Commander of a dad would give it all up for the dream of becoming a gerbil guru, it is not at all surprising that his daughter would craft a memoir that captureshis odd and sometimes embarrassing passion so well. Her spirited account is equal parts quirky, funny, heartwarming, and even heartbreaking.
Madeleine Blais, author of Uphill Walkers: A Memoir of a Family

Author Bio

HOLLY ROBINSON, an award-winning writer, has been a contributing editor to Ladies' Home Journal and Parents, and her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, and More, among other publications. She lives in northern Massachusetts with her husband and their five children.