Product Description

Share with your grandchild the exciting, emotional, amusing, embarrassing, and interesting moments of your life with the "story of you." --Andy and Susan Hilford

For the fifteen million grandmothers who are keepers of family history and memories, The Grandmother Book is a lively and timely way to record your story for future generations.

* Andy and Susan Hilford present the perfect way for grandmothers of all ages to pass along a grandmother's story.  The story is one that recounts coming-of-age moments, life-changing events, a look back at what was, family anecdotes and historical insight.  With thoughtful, surprising, at times unexpected, and provocative questions, this book is directed to the new generation of baby boomer grandmothers. From early memories of her childhood, to the time she began her own family, to the present as she watches her family continue to grow, this valuable, prompted keepsake ensures that the thoughts, moments, events, images, and ideas that shaped her life are collected in her voice and in her hand for a precious audience.

* This grandmother's book of memories includes spaces for special photographs, report cards, family tree, and other cherished memorabilia and keepsakes, along with thoughtful, amusing, memory-nudging prompts to kick-start grandmother's storytelling

* A perfect gift on Grandparent's Day, Mother's Day, wedding anniversaries, and birthdays, the book's hardcover binding and decorative four color art ensure its status as a written family treasure for generations to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43264 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780740771125
• Condition: New
• Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

About the Author
Andy Hilford is a psychologist and researcher who specializes in the study of memory. Susan Hilford is a physical therapist who has worked with adult and pediatric patients and is currently enjoying raising their children full-time.  The couple lives in New York, NY.

Customer Reviews

Not for the divorced granma...
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...

Plusses and minuses.
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.

A future heirloom
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.