Book: Savvy Auntie by Melanie Notkin
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 2011
Pages: 240

Source: This is the copy that the author signed for me at BookExpo America.

Summary: Part instruction manual, part auntie appreciation extravaganza, Savvy Auntie by Melanie Notkin is everything you want to know about aunts or about how to be a terrific one. It’s an attractive book, shamelessly pink, with magazine style layouts.

Thoughts: My youngest nephew is 15 so I skimmed the sections on how to throw a baby shower and hold a newborn. My favorite section was devoted to giving books as gifts–book-giving has been part of my identity as an aunt. When I was getting this book signed by Melanie Notkin at BookExpo America, I told her that I had just been to Chicago to visit my eldest nephew, the wholesale wine seller, and how much unexpected fun it is to be an aunt to an adult–drinking really good wine with him being just one aspect.

Appeal: The practical material in this book will be most useful to the new aunt, or even the expecting aunt. But this book has more to it than its utility. The Savvy Auntie celebrates the role of aunt which, while valued in families, is often underplayed or even disparaged in society. Given that, the best use of this book is as a gift to your aunt or your children’s aunt as an act of appreciation. It is just as approriate for Aunts By Choice as it is for Aunts By Relation. Never mind whether she will learn anything from the book. The act of celebration is what counts here.

Are you an aunt? Share your experience in the comments!