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In My Life – Book Review

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This In My Life is about the In My Life book that we had no idea John Lennon and Paul McCartney co-authored!

While kids might not know much about the Beatles, chances are the adult(s) in your home do! John Lennon and Paul McCartney are English singer/songwriters and they were part of an English rock band called the Beatles. They say (whoever “they” is) that the songwriting partnership between these two Beatles’ band members remains the most successful in history.

This book uses the lyrics of that song and beautiful, very, very, beautiful, illustrations to make it relatable. I loved the illustrations but I didn’t quite understand the book. I liked making up my own stories within the stories and I really enjoyed flipping the pages back and forth to have another look but the story was a little too grown up for me.

The book is basically the song lyrics to the pair’s hit song: In My Life. This book tells the story in drawings, of a girl who gets a new bike as a gift. She rides the bike with her mom and goes off to explore, only to return again — years later with her own daughter in tow. Mom says it’s a book about beautiful moments shared among generations. And in this case, generations of women, with the little girl and her mom visiting the girl’s grandma. The challenge with this book is mom didn’t find the lyrics to be appropriate for a little kid. Like the part about “lovers and friends, I still can recall,” and the part about “Some are dead, some are living.” I don’t know what a lover is and in my home we haven’t really delved into life and death. Mom read the pages but focused more on the illustrations. She used words I could more easily understand.

She really loved that the book has such sweeping watercolor vistas and was very impressed with a page that showed a bird’s eye view of the mom and daughter on their bikes with their colorful scarves flowing in the wind. Mom is a huge fan of Genevieve Santos, the book’s illustrator. In fact, mom found out about the book from Genevieve’s e-newsletter. Genevieve modified an illustration of hers for guests to sign at my parents’ wedding. That illustration is framed and in our living room. So, when we read Genevieve was part of this book we ordered it right away for an autographed copy.

Overall, I didn’t think the lyrics were for me but I liked the story told through the drawings. The illustrations blew me away. I also liked using the pictures to tell my own story, which mom says is super appropriate for a book called In My Life.

Buy the Book on Amazon OR —Buy the Book on Bookshop