940 Saturdays, by Harley A Rotbart | Book Review

This book was provided by its author and/or publishers in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of this publication. 

Author: Harley A Rotbart, MD
Publisher: Potter Style
Release Date: September 2, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 480 pages
Series: N/A
Genre: Non-Fiction; Crafts & Hobbies
Avg. Rating: ★★★✩✩

Amazon | Book Depository

There are 940 Saturdays between a child’s birth and the day he or she turns 18.

That may sound like a lot when there are adventures to plan and hours to fill. But as your child learns to walk, ride a bicycle, and drive, the years pass quickly. This beautiful package includes both a removable booklet with a thousand ideas for family activities that you and your child will love at every age, and a keepsake journal for preserving what you saw and did, thought and felt, so you can savor these memories in the years to come.

Obviously, I'm a little late to the game on this book (or the book is a little late on the game for me?) since my son was born in 2012 - so I've already missed the first (approximate) 104 Saturday opportunities to write about in this book. Nonetheless, I was very excited to receive this book and start on our memories together.

After getting this book and getting the chance to check it out firsthand.. I have mixed feelings about it. The best reasoning for my feelings, I think, is what I assume to be a missed connection that happened somewhere between the actual title of the book and the synopsis. It clearly states in the blurb that there is a removable booklet full of activities. But, after seeing the cover and full title of the book, wires got crossed and I thought that it was a book full of activities with a small journal area. Completely my fault. I might also note that this was the first time in YEARS that I didn't read any reviews before purchasing. Again, completely my fault. 

When you get this book, you get a book that is 480 pages. It's THICK - about 2 inches thick. And every single page of this book, aside from the booklet tucked neatly in an envelope on the inside of the back cover, is a journal page. You have room for two Saturdays on each page: each titled with the numbers 1-940 to represent every Saturday, along with a place for a date and about ten lines to write your journal entry on. Another hiccup for me - I write big, so I'm scared that the space provided may not be enough for me to write entire entries in. But it IS a beautiful book. The cover is what I call a soft hardcover, it's hard but has a padded feel to it. I do believe this book will stand the test of time. 

However, as I said, it's not what I expected. It's disappointing, but I can only blame myself. The booklet in the back IS full of ideas and you do have the added convenience of activities being divided into age groups. A lot of the ideas are what I would consider common and not very original, something that someone can think up themselves on a whim. In my opinion, I think this book would be more successful for me if the ideas in the booklet were written in the actual book itself - and they were a bit more creative and uncommon. Also, each entry for every single Saturday seems like it could get a little overwhelming after a while with trying to keep up with every single weekend day to write down what you did. But, again, this is just my opinion.

I'm giving this book 3 STARS out of 5, based solely on how I feel about this book - which is middle of the road and somewhat neutral. If you're one of those people that can keep up with weekly updates on your family and want something a little fancier than just a regular lined journal (with the restrictions of only writing on Saturdays), then I think you will REALLY like this book. Otherwise, with a retail price of $24.99, if you are NOT one of those people, then I might suggest otherwise. 

**Source: Publisher, via Blogging For Books