Dear Grandchild, This Is Me, by Waterbrook

[Note:  This book was provided free of charge by Waterbrook/Multnomah Press.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Although I have no children (to say nothing of grandchildren), I found this particular project a very poignant one.  This particular book is designed to provide contemporary grandparents a chance to tell their beloved grandchildren about their lives and their perspectives in a way that is quirky and also deeply personal.  Admittedly, I wasn’t sure exactly how to ponder through some of what the publishers thought were milestone events, because there was such a blend of genuinely culturally important and deeply personal questions and ones that seemed to be a bit gimmicky, but whether or not this book is deeply appealing to the grandparent (or whether certain people might need to be explained) depends in large part on how someone feels about answering these questions and pondering their thoughts and feelings about various matters to grandchildren who might be looking for insight on the one hand but may not really be all that knowledgeable or aware about how life was like for their beloved grandparent.  I would like to think that there are at least a great many young people who would have personal enough conversations with their grandparents and enough insight not to need something like this, but at the same time this does at least provide some structure to messages to give to future generations.

The materials themselves provided by Waterbrook here are admittedly somewhat limited.  There are a lot of spaces here with envelopes for grandparents to write various themed letters to their grandchildren, such as when the grandchild is stepping into a new chapter of life, or when the grandchild needs a special reminder of the grandparent’s love.  There is room provided for photos–assuming there will be plenty, and also for family trees to help grandchildren get a sense of the family’s origins and legacy.  In addition, there are pages filled with quotes from the Bible as well as from various writers.  There are questions about how grandparents dealt with changes in technology and first became familiar with video games, for example.  There are also “off the record” places where the grandparent can write about their favorite smells or what they think about little white lies told with good intentions.  There are also places where someone can say what they think about wars (World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the terrorist attacks and resulting war on terror) as well as the deaths of MLK Jr, JFK, Tupac Shakur, and Michael Jackson.

It is unclear what to make of this particular collection.  At some level it appears as if the publisher is trying to appeal to hip grandparents, but it is quite possible that the oddities of this book exist because of the great disconnect here that exists between the likely life experience and interests of the grandparents themselves and the thoughts and concerns of those who are writing this book.  A great many grandparents are likely not to have strong feelings about the deaths of entertainers, and those who are may not appreciate biblical references and quotes by Madeline L’Engle.  The book as a whole appears to be a way for the publisher to appear to be woke by seeking to market a product to older people, but the mix of questions appears more baffling than it does really revealing, even if it would be fascinating to hear stories about natural disasters and how it was that grandparents were able to cope with the sort of things that tend to leave people in contemporary generations completely unable to function with the loss of use of technology.  Perhaps the younger folk receiving this information will be able to appreciate the insights, or perhaps grandparents will simply seek another means of conveying their love and wisdom to future generations.