Beth offers a variety of ways to begin writing so each person can find the path of entry that feels right and most approachable for them. The ideas vary from recipes to interviews of the most elderly family members. She also invites us to write our own stories asking probing questions that help draw out memories from childhood. She offers tips to involve children in the process with us or on their own.
What Readers Will Find Helpful
Granny’s Guide offers ideas to find engaging stories from our family members as well as writing tips to help you make your writing more memorable to readers by knowing how to draw them in using vivid language. She covers basic building blocks of good writing which would be helpful to a child or teen, but may be a bit too basic for the average adult interesting in writing memoirs.
For the hesitant family story teller or writer, Beth fills her book with not just inspiration, but practical lists of questions that can be asked during an interview or to prompt your own memories. She guides us through steps to turn interviews into stories that will want to be read. The “Granny’s Story” at the end of each chapter was another highlight for me in reading this book.
Beth doesn’t only address the fluffy, fun or silly stories, or just the safe stories. She offers insights on dealing with what she refers to as “memories from the heart,” where such topics as death, divorce and disaster are addressed so that our accounts reflect life in all its fullness from our heartthrob to our heartache moments. Often I teach about faithbooking and faith stories and what we have learned from the challenges we have faced. Beth’s approach helps us see how passing on such lessons can help others avoid repeating them.
What Readers Might Not Like
I did find the book got bogged down at times and was repetitive. I became frustrated when I could not be sure who her audience was as she sometimes talks to the reader as a fellow grandparent, then a page later talks almost condescendingly by defining very elementary words as one might do in a class for school children. For me, that lack of a clear audience makes it hard to recommend the book for a specific group.
Perhaps her sub-title, For Kids from 8 to 98, means that she truly wants this book to work for all ages. But with that wide a range, it will be either over the head of the 8-year-old or exceedingly frustrating for a grandparent like I am who feels spoken to as though I were eight. Beyond that frustration, there are great aspects to the book in terms of the practical list of questions and the inspiring stories given at the conclusion of each chapter.
Additional Resources Available in Granny’s Guide
The appendix of Granny’s Guide is filled with helpful resources, both on the Web as well as books. Beth offers worksheets on her website, www.bethlamie.com, that can be used by children during the upcoming holiday season as relatives gather to make it a time of discovery. Family stories are great ways to bridge the generation gap and bring people together. If you have ever pondered writing down your own stories, or those of special people in your life, Granny’s Guide might serve as a helpful tool to get you started putting pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard).
As someone involved in memory keeping and celebration for almost 19 years, I agree with Beth on the value of writng down what we would otherwise forget. This benefits both the writer and all those who may read what we have written about ourselves or our family members. “Everyone has a story to tell” is a tag I have used often and finding it on the back cover of Granny’s Guide to Fun & Fabulous Family Stories is affirming. I couldn’t agree more.
Details about Granny’s Guide
- Author: Beth LaMie
- ISBN: 978-0-9840780-0-4
- Little Duck Publishing
- 212 pages – Softcover Book
- Regular price: $22.50; Introductory price $18.95 + shipping
- Available through Beth LaMie’s Web site or find the book on Facebook at Granny’s Guide to Fun & Fabulous Family Stories
