60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Plusses and minuses., October 28, 2009
This review is from: The Grandmother Book: A Book About You for Your Grandchild (Hardcover)
I decided I wanted to give grandparent journals to the parents and in-laws for Christmas, and began reading the reviews for the many books. I have a rather comprehensive genealogy already done, so I wasn't too interested in getting the whole "family tree" aspect. Instead, I wanted insight into the person's childhood and adulthood, and perhaps some little personal nuggets that would really flesh them out for me, my kids, and generations to come.
At any rate, I still couldn't figure out which one I wanted (sometimes those "look inside" things are just useless, showing copyright pages and blank sheets!), and of course the local book stores don't have all of them. I decided the only way I could decide which was right was to buy them all, look at them, and return the ones I didn't like as well. So, I bought
Grandmother Remembers a Written Heirloom for My Grandchild,
A Grandparent's Legacy: Your Life Story in Your Own Words,
A Grandparent's Book,
Grandparents Journal,
Memories for My Grandchild. I'm planning to review them all as I make my decision.
The Grandmother book is hardcover. The inside pages are a good weight, with a smooth finish that may or may not accept all types of inks. the binding is traditional (not spiral), which I don't like nearly as much as a spiral bound book, when you are supposed to be writing in the book. It starts with a full page for the grandparent to fill in as a dedication, then 2 faces on the "basics" (name, age, serial number, you know the drill). The next 2 faces are blank, for photos, then the next 2 are a family tree. The graphics are cute without being overly curly-cue cutsie. The next pages are youth, adolescence, etc. Each "chapter" is followed by 2 pages which are blank, for adding photos, report cards, etc. I know that these craftie pages are liked by many, but although my mom is an artist, she isn't into craft pages, and my mother-in-law is not at all craftie. Neither woman has many photos or memorabilia from their childhood, so those pages, of which there are many in this book, would be wasted on them...
The pages are written in the style of starting a sentence for the grandparent to fill out ("My wedding dress was _______"), vs a question and space for answer format. I don't know if one is necessarily better than the other; It's just each person's opinion.
There are several questions that ask tough memory questions ("A hamburger cost ___") which I can barely answer about last year, much less asking a grandparent to recall it from 50 years ago.
The book is written with some tongue in cheek, which I appreciate, eg, "when I was young (waaaay back when)", or "grandfather studmuffin".
Overall, I like the graphics, and I like the chapter headings. I'm not keen on the binding, and I don't think the questions are anything particularly different or deep. I'm thinking this isn't in my top 2 choices.
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58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the divorced granma..., June 2, 2008
This review is from: The Grandmother Book: A Book About You for Your Grandchild (Hardcover)
This is cute, but as soon as I received it and thumbed through it, I realized it was inappropriate for my mom, who hasn't been with "grandpa" for a long time. It has several pages for "first date with grandpa", "first kiss with grandpa", etc, which would have been awkward, since they're divorced...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A future heirloom, May 4, 2008
This review is from: The Grandmother Book: A Book About You for Your Grandchild (Hardcover)
This is a book that is at once funny, touching, sentimental and hopeful. The knowledge we have of our grandparents is often diluted when heard through our parents. What better way to encapsulate the lives of our parent's mothers than through this treasure of a book? I wish this book had been written earlier so that my grandmother's life could have been more fully remembered by myself, as well as by my children. This book will, once filled out, be more than a memoir - it will be a family heirloom.
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