Customer Reviews

A Grandparent's Book

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased this book to give to my child's grandparents to fill out together. Unfortunately, it's questions are geared for only one person to fill them out. So, the book is great if your intention is to give it to either a grandmother OR a grandfather to fill out, but not a couple.

I found a different book that is fabulous for both to fill out together. Our Story: A Grandparent's Record Book, Sharing Your History With Those You Love, by Readers Digest.

This book is an excellent way to record the lives of grandparents. It provides for detailed descriptions not just of life events, but of the personality of the person and of his/her outlook on life. I research my family history, and I have looked at several different versions of this type of book. A Grandparent's Book seems to provide the most complete picture of a person. You don't have to wait to be a grandparent or only give it to a grandparent. It works for parents, too. I have given it to my children's grandparents, and I am purchasing two for my husband and myself to complete for our children and grandchildren.

When our daughter announced that she was pregnant and wanted us to document our family history, she handed us Milton Kamen's book...a fabulous workbook with intelligent questions and enough room for thoughtful answers....and we had a wonderful time answering these questions which brought back memories of things forgotten since childhood and of people not thought of for years. BUY THIS BOOK FOR A WONDERFUL TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

I felt like this journal had too many questions. "Who were the teachers you didn't like," "Were you ever lost while traveling?" "Do you remember the first hotel you stayed in?" "What is the best restaurant you've eaten in while traveling?" "Have there been times when you questioned your religion?"

The book is 143 pages with an average of 3 questions per page. The grandfather book that I purchased was so much better. It was much more to the point and had questions that my parents could still answer. My mom doesn't remember which local political candidates she has supported and why. The questions are too much. The book seems more like an interrogation than a loving memory journal.

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 GrandchildA Grandparent's Legacy: Your Life Story in Your Own Words, A Grandparent's Book, The Grandmother Book: A Book About You for Your Grandchild, Grandparents Journal, and Memories for My Grandchild. I'm planning to review them all as I make my decision.

A Grandparent's Book is hardcover, standard (not spiral) binding. I like the spiral bindings better for this kind of book, as the pages can lay flat to allow for writing easier. The paper is a lighter weight than the other books I've looked at, but it's still good quality, from what I can tell. The paper has a smooth, matte finish, so you would think it would accept all types of pens.

This is the first one of these books that I've seen which has family trees (his and hers) on the inside front and back covers. That's a kind of neat use of those usually wasted parts of the book. The book is designed for only one person to fill it out, but is also set up so that it can be given to either a grandmother or grandfather. If you want questions designed specifically for what would traditionally be a woman's role (eg some books ask for family recipes, or the latest fashion trend when she was growing up), then this probably isn't the book for you. This is written in the ask-a-question,-get-the-answer format (as opposed to the we-start-the-sentence-for-you,-you-finish-it style). Each page is set up with a question, then several lines to answer the question, then another question. Questions cover about half of each page; the bottom half of each page is a blank area for "notes". I'm not sure what the other reviewer was talking about to say it had "absolutely no space" to answer questions. While it doesn't allow for paragraphs of free flowing thought, it does allow for brief-ish answers. They put enough thought into it to allow small spaces for quick answers, and larger spaces for more involved questions. It covers a tremendous amount of ground in its 143 pages, leaving only 7 pages in the back as "memorabilia" pages, so if you want this to be more of a scrapbooking effort, then this is not the book for you. Questions are far-ranging from the mundane (in high school years, did you belong to any clubs, eg) to the thoughtful (eg, "who or what has been the most important help to you in your work?"). Just flipping through the book, looking at the questions, is rather exhausting, forget having to answer them all!

The inside is relatively spare. Other than the family trees being drawn as trees, there are no illustrations, photos or designs. Each chapter is heralded by one page with the chapter title. Each following page then uses about an inch of the top of the page to print "A Grandparent's Book" in flowing script, followed again by the chapter title. Perhaps they should have devoted that space to space for answering questions, instead of reminding grandparents what book they were looking at.

I appreciate the thoroughness of this book, and can't say that there's anything I actively dislike about this book. I just can't really say that there's anything I love about this book, either, when comparing it to the others I bought. I would probably put this book in the middle of the pack.

I ordered this book for my grandparents to fill out for me. I lost my great grandmother before she had a chance to do anything like this, so I wanted to make sure to get the information from my grandparents. The questions are great, they fill you in on things that happened in your grandparents' lives that you might not learn otherwise. It hits on pretty much every aspect of their lives during almost every stage and has lots of insightful questions.

One tip: This book is meant for each set of grandparents to fill out only one book, but there is not really enough room under each question for both people's answers. I suggest one book per grandparent to leave them plenty of room to write!

This is an outstanding book. You'll have a blast first, reading through it and remembering things you haven't thought about in years and then, starting to write about them. Once you start one thought, others start flowing back like crazy, it's amazing. This book has questions in it that other books like it don't even come close to asking. You'll be tempted to forget about writing IN the book because you'll want more room to write all the memories and stories that you'll want to share, not just for the grand kids, but for your own kids. What fun. I wish my Grandparents had done this for me, what a treasure it would have been.

I couldn't ask for a better Grandparent Book. I only wish someone would publish one for Great Grandparents! I found it fun to go back to early childhood and write my "memoirs" ~~ good practice for when I start on my own autobiography. I kept wondering what the world situation would be when my great-grands read it in, say, their teens. How can they understand that we bought a house in 1960 for $15,500 when you can't buy a car for that amount now.
I would warn anyone purchasing this book to start writing in it several weeks ahead of the intended date of the gift. It is very long, and it takes time to consider and then write each response. But all of that detail is so interesting and important.
BTW, I simply printed in "Great" in from of "Grandparents Book." The fact that it is mostly (not completely) set up for one grand (or great grand) parent to respond is not a problem. There is room for both to respond.
One of the best books of this type to be found.

This is a great hardback book. I bought one for each of my grandparents to fill out. It asks a different types of questions (ones I would have never even thought to ask), and gives them plenty of space to write a response. The pages are also lined, so it is easier to write the response. There is also extra pages in the back of the book for them to add any additional notes, newspaper clipings, photographs, etc. I'm so excited to have these books, and to be able to pass them down to future generations.

As a student in Engilish class preforming research on my family this book gave insight on my dead gradmother who I had never known . I wish this was a more populized book and that I could pick it up in any book store. Every one I know who has seen it wishes they could give one to thier grandparent or parent for future use especially for parents with only one living relitive. A stuning book and a wonderful idea . I'm glad that thier aare people with this much kindness who can think of what the most valuable gift a grandparent could leave a Grandchild.