Lifebooks are creative ways to help children connect their past with their present situation and better understand their lives and histories. They can also help children solidify their understanding of their permanent roles in their adoptive families. Find resources in this section that describe creating lifebooks for children who are adopted.
Resources and tips for creating lifebooks
Adoption Scrapbooks Made Easy
Colson (2017)
Adoptive Families
Provides tips for completing a lifebook for an adopted child, including using language that suggests possibilities for unclear information and using storytelling to highlight key information.
Lifebooks
Adoptive Families
Provides multiple articles related to the creation of lifebooks, including resources about engaging children in their creation as well as sample pages.
Lifebooks: A Great Way to Support Child Well-Being (PDF - 133 KB)
NC DSS Child Welfare Services Statewide Training Partnership (2013)
Training Matters, 14(3)
Provides key takeaways from lifebook training, including referencing birth histories and utilizing information from all aspects of a child’s life.
Lifebooks Help Kids Heal, One Page at a Time (PDF - 6,656 KB)
Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (2013)
Eye on LSSI
Explains the role that lifebooks can play in a child’s identity formation following adoption.
Sample lifebooks
IFAPA Lifebook Pages
Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association
Explains the purpose of creating lifebooks to help adopted child transition. This resource also includes examples of lifebook pages.
Lifebook
Michigan Adoption Resource Exchange (2017)
Provides sample pages that can be utilized in creating or adding to a lifebook for a child in foster or adoptive care.