About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Don't open The Really Useful Grandparents' Book unless you are prepared to be lost for an hour. It will entrance you with an eclectic mixture of stories, projects, games, recipes and recommendations. Eleo Gordon and Tony Lacey have authored a really useful book, but it is also really interesting. You've been warned.



Pros

• Dense with information
• A unusual, eclectic mix
• Well-written and edited

• Lots of interesting photographs
• Drawings that both explain and illustrate

Cons

• No index for easy locating of info
• No obvious organizing principle

Description

• 342 pages
• Hardcover
• Published by Broadway Books, imprint of Crown Publishing, a division of Random House

Guide Review
After reviewing a dozen or so books about grandparents, I had become a little jaded. Cracking open The Really Useful Grandparents' Book, I wondered what I could find between its covers that I hadn't encountered previously in a book for grandparents. A quarter of an hour later, I had my answer: a lot of stuff.
This is a grandparenting book with a different vibe. A collaboration by Tony Lacey and Eleo Gordon, it's a bit old-fashioned, in spite of occasional references to movies and iPods. The art, typography and other elements have a retro feel that is at first off-putting but feels right as you get acquainted with the book.

First published in the U.K., The Really Useful Grandparents' Bookalso has a distinctly British tone. You may be initially puzzled by references to antirrhinums (snapdragons), bird hides (blinds) and lemon curd, but you'll soon enjoy deciphering the occasional Britishism.

Another feature you'll enjoy is the inclusion of informative segments about a wide variety of topics, ranging from disasters at sea to rugby to the Battle of Hastings. Designed to be shared with grandchildren, you'll find that these segments are fascinating to the whole family.

Another plus of this grandparents' book is that the projects and activities are not the same ones you see over and over in other books and on the Internet. You'll find instructions for building a campfire and directions for creating a human lightbulb. The recommendations for music to listen to and books to read will contain titles that are new to you, as well as some old favorites that you may have forgotten about.

In an attempt to nail down just what is different about this book, I tried an experiment. I chose ten random page numbers and wrote down what was on each page. Here's the result:

• A recipe for shepherd's pie
• Information about mummies
• Instructions for playing Clock Patience and German Whist
• Information about Sydney, Australia
• A list of classic stories
• Building tree and play houses
• Starting a collection
• Ideas for sandwiches and cooking on the barbeque
• Making Victorian Christmas tree cutouts
• Looking at paintings

If you're a thoroughly modern Glamma or G-Daddy, you might not like this book. If you're a Grammy or Pawpaw, I think you'll love it. You'll remember wonderful toys and projects from your own childhood, and your grandparenting will be inspired and revitalized. This book reminds me of these lines by Robert Louis Stevenson: "The world is so full of a number of things, / I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.