The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s. Standing up to the church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated ideas about women, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for innovation, all the while raising her six sons and four daughters with the belief that miracles are an everyday occurrence. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Evelyn Ryan's story is told by her daughter Terry with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit and sense of humor can triumph over adversity every time. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In the 1950s, the Ryan family struggled to make ends meet. Ten kids and a father who spent most of his paycheck on booze drained the family's meager finances. But mom Evelyn Ryan, a former journalist, found an ingenious way to bring in extra income: entering contests on the backs of cereal boxes and the like. The author, Evelyn's daughter, tells the entertaining story of her childhood and her mother's contest career with humor and affection. She is not a professional narrator, but her love and admiration for her mother come through in every sentence. Evelyn won supermarket shopping sprees that put much-needed food on the table, provided washing machines and other appliances the family couldn't afford, and delivered cash to pay the mounting pile of bills. This well-told, suspenseful tale is peppered with examples of Evelyn's winning poems and slogans, taken from the years of notebooks that she saved and passed on to her daughter, and has a fiction-worthy climax that will keep listeners laughing even as they're glued to Ryan's tale. Simultaneous release with the Simon & Schuster hardcover (Forecasts, Feb. 5). (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

This is the story of Evelyn Ryan, whose brood of ten children is not fully supported by her working husband, in part because of his perpetual drinking. Her sixth child, San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Ryan, here recounts how the family depended on her poems, jingles, and contest entries to make ends meet (and sometimes not even). When they must move, Evelyn wins $5000 for a down payment on a house; when their car breaks down, she wins a new one. In addition to her seemingly boundless flow of words is her positive outlook on life, one that her children inherited despite their subsistence on fish sticks and hand-me-down clothes. While readers will root for the family and admire Evelyn's strength and her way with words, in the end the story could have been improved with some judicious editing, especially of the repetitions of the jingles. Suitable for leisure collections. Gina Kaiser, Univ. of the Sciences in Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Adult/High School-While her sometimes abusive husband drank away a third of his weekly take-home pay, Evelyn Ryan kept her ever-growing family afloat by entering every contest she came across, beginning with Burma Shave roadside-sign jingles. In post-World War II America, money, appliances, food, excursions-anything you could think of-were routinely offered to the person who sent in the best jingle, essay, or poem, accompanied, of course, by the company's box-top or other product identification. Although she more often won prizes of products, such as a case of Almond Joy candy bars, Mrs. Ryan once won enough for a down payment on a house just as her family was being turned out of their two-bedroom rental house. That contest also won her a bicycle for her son. She entered so many contests, often several times under different forms of her name, that hardly a week went by without some prize being delivered by the postman. Charmingly written by one of her 10 children, this story is not only a chronicle of contesting, but also of her mother's irrepressible spirit. With a sense of humor that wouldn't quit, she found fun in whatever life sent her way, and passed that on to all her children who, despite the poverty they grew up in, lived and still live happy, useful lives. YAs who like family stories should love this winning account.-Sydney Hausrath, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Terry Ryan, the sixth of Evelyn Ryan's ten children, is the writing half of T. O. Sylvester, a long-running cartoon in the "San Francisco Chronicle". The author of two books of poetry, she lives in San Francisco, California.

(Publisher Provided) Writer Terry Ryan was born in Defiance, Ohio on July 14, 1946. She received a bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She was best-known for her work The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less. In 2005, this memoir was adapted into a movie. She also wrote the cartoon T.O. Sylvester in the San Francisco Chronicle. She died from cancer on May 16, 2007.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Foreword	p. 11
Part 1
1 The Contester	p. 16
2 Rhyme Does Pay	p. 38
3 Supermarket Spree	p. 51
Part 2
4 The Sleeping Giant	p. 62
5 Father of the Year	p. 75
6 Too Damned Happy	p. 89
7 Defiance	p. 99
8 Tickle Hills	p. 110
Part 3
9 Poet Laureate	p. 124
10 Giant Steps	p. 140
11 Name That Sandwich	p. 160
Part 4
12 The Affadaisies	p. 182
13 Round Robin	p. 206
14 Going, Going, Gone	p. 228
Part 5
15 Hell and High Water	p. 260
16 Mrs. Etchie	p. 270
17 Such a Thing as Destiny	p. 283

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.