Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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, 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. Memories for my Grandchild is hardcover, with a spiral binding which makes it really easy to lay a page flat to write in the book. The book has decent weight, smooth paper which should accept all pens and pencils. the first page is a dedication "for my grandchild", and prompts you to fill it out with why you filled it out, the first time you saw the grandchild, always remember this, etc. That's a nice touch. My problem is that the grandparents I was giving this to have 3 or 5 grandkids (depending on the side of the family), and I was going to have them fill out the book once for all the grandkids. This dedication might be hard to write for all the kids. The next faces are a family tree, which uses a fold-out page to extend the tree to both the grandmother and grandfather's sides of the tree, followed by 20 pages of "family history"; ancestors, the grandparent's grandparents, parents, and extended family. the very last page of the chapter is heavier weight, with cuts in it to slide in a family photo. The next 18 pages are of the childhood years. It is a mixture of starting the sentence for you ("My hero was...") and Q&A ("Were you born in a hospital, at home, or somewhere else?"). Following chapters are "Teenage years", "entering adulthood", "family life", "today", "further thoughts", and "resources" (a list of genealogy/family record books and websites). Each chapter but the last follows the same format as the "childhood years". The book is not clearly for a woman or a man, and the individual pages are not froo-froo or anything, but the chapter pages and blank pages have a somewhat female bent with the design, romantic quotes, and photos. They seem to be careful, however, to make questions gender neutral (eg, "As you got to know your future spouse, what made you fall in love with him or her"), so this could work with either a man or woman. The book came shrinkwrapped. The back cover description of the book is attached to the shrinkwrap, so after you unwrap it, you are left with only the fancy paper of the back page. This gives the book more of a journal/keepsake feel, which is nice. The inside back cover has an attached, expandable envelope for putting in keepsakes. It's great that it expands but I don't think you can put too much in there or the book's cover won't close properly. This is the last book I reviewed. I think my top 3 contenders are the 3 spiral bound books. For whatever reason, I liked the insides of those best, and of course, liked the spiral binding best. I'm not sure which one I will ultimately choose. Perhaps I'll end up buying different ones for different parents/personalities... I'll have to update later. UPDATE: I decided to buy 2 copies of this; one for each of my parents, since they are both into genealogies. For my inlaws, I purchased "grandparents' journal", so they would only have to fill one book out.