There’s something about the slowness of summertime that is giving people the time to tell some stories in photo books that cover many years.

SharonC15’s “The Story of You…” is the first I saw. It’s a gift to her 18 year old daughter as she heads off to college. BeckyS549’s “

Paislee Press’ “Happy As a Lark” and “Dreams Are Made Of” digital quick page kits really seem to have hit a cord in our photo book community.

ChristineC1030’s “Life Little Instruction Book According to Riley” uses candid photos of her child to illustrate fun and heartfelt lessons to remember for life.
The lessons she’s come up share themes that chidren live by: finding the joy in everyday, being true to yourself, and sticking to it to meet goals.

There have been a several different photo books shared with Gallery recently that shared one common element – using song lyrics as captions or journaling in their book.
The first book from MarioF21 “Mrs. Clark you raise me up because” uses the lyrics of the Josh Groban song.

Already we know our audience is thinking ahead to graduations in May or June. While invitations may be top of mind, consider a photo book to remember the school year or a whole series of years. I’ve found some great examples in the Shutterfly Gallery. DianeB297’s “Jamie’s grad gift” is one of the most ambitious, capturing 14 years of her daughter’s school memories.

An interesting phenomena I’ve spotted a couple of times is the recipe book as family history book. It makes sense that families would consider recipes as a part of their story, including photos that spanned generations, in the cookbook. What I love about some of the Gallery examples is that the recipient is a younger generation, presumably heading off on their own, accompanied by this book of food and family memories.