Rating: 
Summary: Just Ok
Review: Slan's book is Ok. No more, no less. This book is geared towards people who create scrapbooks, not people who want to write their life's story. Slan gives examples and advice on how to go beyond the who-what-where-when-why style. However, she doesn't explain how to write a long narrative, how to write more than "the kids at the beach". She doesn't show examples of her writing. Even though there are lots of pictures in her book, I am always amazed that while she is a professional author, she has very little journaling on her scrapbook pages! I know people that I think of as being fairly casual writers, if at all, and they write much more than she does. Certainly don't buy this book hoping to find new ways to incorporate journaling into your scrapbook layouts. The book that taught me to go beyond simple "bullet point" journaling is Denis Ledoux's "Photo Scribe". This book will not teach you how to write long narratives. It is a start... but only that.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your ordinary Scrapbooking book!
Review: This book is not just a book of great layouts, though it certainly has those! And it's not just tips on journaling either. Joanna Campbell Slan does an outstanding job of teaching you how to tell the stories behind your pictures. The layouts are wonderful, and not as impossible-looking as so many layouts are in other books! But what's important is that she shows how scrapbooking can be used for SO many situations. It's not just a hobby for moms with young children. I really enjoyed reading this book, and looking at her layouts. She shares a lot of her own scrapbook pages and by the end of the book, we get to know her son Michael and we feel better equipped to scrapbook the stories of OUR lives. There was a poignant section about scrapbooking the not-so-good memories. Joanna uses her photos and journaling to create a memorial page for her nephew Josh who was killed just before his 5th birthday. Probably the most helpful part of the book is all the journaling/storytelling tips! The author even includes questionnaires to fill out as you interview your family members. I enjoyed the fact that the layouts are graded by how easy/difficult they are. You can look that up in the index and also see what materials are necessary. By the end of the book, I really feel that I had gotten to know Joanna quite well - and isn't that the goal of our scrapbooks, to share ourselves with future generations? Also, Joanna has a website ... where you can download templates, access helpful hints, and link to other scrapbooking websites. Happy Scrappin'!
| 
