Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure for the Adopted Child

by Beth O'Malley

Dear Readers, Are you ready for a surprise? The original lifebook guide, a Treasure for the Adopted Child is now completely updated and revised! Motivated by adoptive motherhood and years of lifebook creation, revising the guide was a must! Want to see see inside the book?
Read the first chapter?
Check out the Table of Contents? Search Amazon for
lifebooks updated and revised
Take Care,
Beth O'malley

Genres: Adoption, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Synthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, bit repetitive. Gave me some good ideas

[JEM · Rating 3 out of 5]

helpful ideas but would be great if there was a newer edition. This was published in 2005.

[Krista Ehlers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book addresses a task which is fairly simple, but extremely emotional: make a book that describes your child’s life from birth through finalization of adoption into your family. A lifebook is like a scrapbook, only not focused on photos; like a baby book, only covering the tough topics with honesty; like a timeline, only in child-friendly terms. The thing which complicates this process is that you, the adoptive or foster parent, have to think about things you might rather avoid: birth parents’ importance to the child, incomplete information about their life before entering your family, and tough topics like abandonment, abuse, or neglect.

The author spends the first part of the book focusing on the “why” of this project, telling the reader how valuable these books are to adoptees, and how much benefit your child will get from this as they process adoption in their developmental stages. This part of the book was not as useful to me, because I was already “sold” on the value, I was just having trouble understanding exactly what was required and how to go about it.

Luckily, she spends the last two thirds of the book covering precisely these topics. She talks about overcoming your natural roadblocks such as “not enough time” or “I’m not creative,” and then she goes into a page-by-page description of what goes into the book. Each page has sample language that you can copy right into your book if it applies (I know I did!), and she has sample paragraphs written by adoption professionals to cover even the toughest topics in an honest, but age appropriate way. Finally, the book finishes with four sample lifebooks, reflecting various types of adoption (i.e. international, foster care, birth parent, and older child adoption).

This book was extremely valuable to me, because it made the task less overwhelming, without watering down the need for facing the hard parts. You can also sign up for monthly tips about lifebooks and adoption issues from the author.

[Penelope · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave me the much needed kick in the pants that I needed to compile a book about my children's lives from birth to the first days in our family. While I didn't follow much of the advice in this book, it did help get the creative juices flowing and me thinking about what was important for my children to hear. O'Malley also addresses how and when to share the child's lifebook which I found extremely helpful. I could give my children ownership over their story and let them be the one to tell it or not as they like.

[Kerry Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great idea for those who are adopting children to give them a sence of where they came from and how they came to be a part of your family. Many children cling to their lifebooks, especially those who were adopted at an older age. I am creating one for Emma and will include facts about her birthparents, as well as the culture of India as Emmas birth father is from India. It will be a lot of fun to make!!

[Cori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't rocket science and I don't agree with a lot of the suggestions, but it gives a good jumping off point for creating a lifebook for your child. I was pretty overwhelmed and unsure about making my son's lifebook, but I have a pretty clear vision of what I want to do after reading this book and using parts of it to build the foundation.

[Naomi Kenorak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides excellent motivation to get you started on creating a lifebook, including examples to base yours on, whatever your child's adoption story. I really believe that lifebooks are critically important for adopted kids. Remember that he sooner you start on the lifebook, the better; your kids can only benefit from it if they actually have it to look at!

[Brigitte · Rating 2 out of 5]

It helped my to organize my thoughts and all the documents, pictures and memorabilia to create a Lifeboat for my adopted daughter. She knows her story but I wanted her to have everything in one cohesive place. Im a scrapbooker so I decided to go with my strength.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows you how to make a lifebook (sort of like a baby book) for your adopted child.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty basic, but it did help me find language to describe to my daughter why the situation in China causes so many girls to be adopted by families who live abroad.

[Rhonda]

Still waiting to read this one.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a really high-quality publication--lots of clip art and fancy fonts--but it was informative and got my creative juices flowing.

[Diane Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! I just needed to be told to slow down before I rushed headlong into creating these books for our kids.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book with to the point writing examples of how to talk about the tricky subjects of why kids are placed. Priceless information!