Curly Grandma's Letter's

Curly Grandma's Letter's: Writing to Kids & Capturing your Autobiography

by

Anita Bryce

ISBN-13: 9781606046128
Published: 09/08/2009
Kindle Edition


About the Book:
Communicating is fun and easy. Find out how simple it is in this easy-to-understand guide to penning your autobiography.(Barnes and Noble)

My thoughts:
For about 10 years prior to my dad's passing he spent a lot of time typing out his memoirs.  My dad's memories had blurred over time making it difficult to organize his history into chronological order. Instead he wrote "stories".  This turned out to be a delightful format to read.  The little children especially enjoy these brief stories focusing on a particular event.

I've enjoyed my dad's memoirs very much, and as a result I've tried several times to write my own story.  I've been overwhelmed by the task. It's hard for me to step back and objectively analyze my life, decide what is important and put it in some kind of order.  Like my dad my memories have blurred with time.

I came across Grandma Curly's Letter's quite by accident.  But I was intrigued with the idea of capturing my autobiography via letter's to my grandchildren.  I love my grandchildren and spend a lot of time with them. I was excited to think that I could begin now, it just might turn out to be fun and informative for both me and the grandchildren.

Grandma Curly's premise is that I write letter's to my grandchildren and in a creative way tell them about my life--one story at a time.  The book is full of fun and creative ideas for making the letter's appealing to children.  Ms. Bryce (Grandma Curly) breaks down the information according to age groups and teaches one how to write age specific letter's.  I'm very excited about sharing my story with my grandchildren via letter's.  The way one captures their autobiography  is to keep a file with a copy of each letter written.  The history won't be in order, and probably never complete.  But the file will give readers a glimpse into my life, and a record of my "voice" or the way I speak.

Grandma Curly is a Grandma, not an author. She discovered this method as she wrote letter's to her grandchildren. Her book is not a professional "how-to" book.  It has good ideas and tips but she was redundant, repeating her tips from chapter to chapter.  She did get her point across and was inspirational.  I would also recommend that you purchase this as a physical book and not as a kindle edition.   She has photo copied and included many of her letter's in the book.  The pictures were too small to view on the kindle.  I'm not sure how they would look in the paperback edition.  But I would have liked to have had a look at them.

Here are a few quotes from the book that give you a glimpse as to its contents:

"when writing to your grandchildren, keep in mind 'The Four E's: Easy, Entertaining, Engaging, and Everlasting'"

"Everlasting is the element of writing with purpose: we want our letters to be here after we are gone as a window into our character and personality, so we write with that in mind."

"The letter should have a setting, characters, and plot if possible."

"Tell your history the way you remember it, with warm stories, but interspersed with poignant specifics."

"Grandparents reap many benefits from corresponding with grandchildren.  It seems that letter-writing promotes good emotional and mental health in seniors.  Studies have shown healthy results occur--such as avoiding depression, gaining feelings of self worth, and possibly even averting dementia--just from writing to our offspring"

I would recommend this book to any grandparent that would like to preserve their history as well as deepen their relationships with their grandchildren.

I thought I would include  my first letter with this review:

September 30, 2010

Dear Little Bear,

This week you have been playing with rubber band guns. You brought a little pistol from your house. Auntie came over and when she saw you playing with your gun she got really excited and told you that she had a rubber band gun that she loved playing with.

Auntie’s gun was a black plastic repeat shooter; six bands on the wheel. Auntie found it for you and was very excited to demonstrate how it worked. Just for fun she shot both you and Sweetings.

NOW you and I both know you never shoot a person with a gun even if it is a rubber band gun. And just HOW did we learn this lesson? Well let me tell you . . .

A long time ago when you were little . . . (oh wait, it was just yesterday) . . . anyway you and Sweetings were playing with the little animal toys. You wanted to play with the Polar Bears and Sweetings was choosing not to share. That made you mad. So you came running up to Auntie and said, “Auntie shoot Sweetings!” Auntie laughed and said, “No, I’m not going to shoot Sweetings.”

Well you can think and act for yourself pretty much so you took that rubber band gun, marched into the TV room and shot Sweetings. Sweetings started to cry. You’re smart enough to figure out that when Sweetings cries you’re probably in trouble. So you thought you’d beat her to the reporting and ran back to Auntie. “Sweetings is crying”, you tell Auntie. Auntie laughs and tells you, “Of course she is, because you shot her with the rubber band gun.” And just because you knew you hadn’t done the right thing you decided to join in the crying.

But at least you learned an important lesson— “NEVER SHOOT A PERSON WITH A GUN, EVEN IF IT’S A TOY GUN!!!!!”

Would you like to know how Grandma Kaye learned that same lesson? It happened a long time ago when I was little . . .

Back in the Wild West days there were two rascally villains. Killer Kaye (that’s me) was on the hunt for Surly Steve (my little brother). The parents were away working hard out on the range. That meant that the only law the pair had to keep their eyes open for was Burly Bill (my older brother). Killer Kaye wasn’t too worried about Burly Bill. He was sittin’ in the jail with his nose glued to the TV watching his favorite cop show (The Mod Squad). And so Killer Kaye set out to hunt down her arch enemy Surly Steve.

Killer Kaye was armed with a BB gun. Since the hunt was taking place indoors the rule was “no BB’s” only matchsticks with the heads broke off, and only 3 pumps in the air chamber. Killer Kaye wasn’t happy with the rule and thought she’d shake old Surly Steve up a bit. That sneaky girl loaded the gun with a toothpick and pumped the gun up with ten whole pumps of air! What a dastardly villain!

Killer Kaye snuck stealthily through the house hunting for Surly Steve. Suddenly she spotted him. He was flying through the family room right behind Burly Bill. Steve was making a mad dash for the parents’ bedroom.



Killer Kaye didn’t care, she took aim and fired!!! That toothpick sailed straight and true sticking Surly Steve right in the butt!!! That toothpick went through the pocket of his Levi’s and right into the tender skin of his right butt cheek.

Time stopped  Surly Steve’s mouth fell open as he stared in disbelief at Killer Kaye. Killer Kaye glanced nervously from Burly Bill to Surly Steve wondering who would get her first. Burly Bill jumped up from his spot on the couch and stared dumbstruck at the two villains!

Time started  Killer Kaye and Surly Steve erupted in a roar of laughter as Steve pulled the toothpick from his hinny. Burly Bill exploded in a fit of anger as he scolded the two for being so stupid! (You might have shot him in the eye!) Burly Bill confiscated the BB gun and went back to his TV program leaving the pair of criminals in crumpled heaps on the floor as they shook with laughter.

And so Killer Kaye and Surly Steve learned an important lesson— “NEVER SHOOT A PERSON WITH A GUN, EVEN IF IT’S A TOY GUN!!!!!”


Love to you,
Grandma Kaye

*           *             *             *           *

I read this book to meet challenge #6 in the "Take Another chance Challenge" hosted by Jenner's

pick a genre that you have NEVER read before. Find a book from that genre, read it, and write about it.

I found a genre called "letters" that I have never read before. This genre includes books that contain actual correspondence between 2 or more persons.  I downloaded Curly Grandma's letter's because I was interested in the "personal history and the grandchildren".  I also downloaded letter's that Ronald and Nancy Reagen wrote to each other.  I hope to get to that one.

book #30