Customer Reviews

Forever Fingerprints: An Amazing Discovery for Adopted Children

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading 3 five star reviews, I thought I'd love this book for my 5 year old girl adopted from China. But I think I'm sending it back. I've heard Sherri Eldridge speak in person and thought this would be a good book, but it just strikes me funny. Its a strange book in several ways. Three specific things sit wrong with me: at one point, Lucie (the star of the story) wonders if the baby inside her aunt is pooping and then she wonderings "where did the poop go? did it turn into pizza?" What???? I know kids tend toward potty humor, but this is just gross in my opinion. In another scene, Lucie is upset and is sitting on her mom's lap. Then the book says "Unbuttoning her shirt, she (mom) tucked it around Lucied with they rocked back and forth, back & forth." This is not behavior we practice in our house and I'm not quite sure how to explain it to my daughter. Third, on the same page Lucie wonders if there are fish in the water around her aunts baby, and the book shows a picture of the baby in the womb with fish swimming around him. My daughter is too literal for this type of picture -- reproduction is confusing enough without putting in confusing pictures! Overall, I feel this isn't a well written children's book - its one of those books written by someone who wants to be a children's author but just isn't even though they have a great message (not the likes of Karma Wilson or Felicia Bond or Kevin Henkes etc. etc.) I feel the same way about the Shaoey & Dot books even though I love Steven Curtis Chapman. I wish an accomplished children's author would write a great adoption book! Anyhow, this isn't a terrible book, but not a great one either in my opionion. Probably good compared to what's out there overall, but for me I've decided to send it back to Amazon and order "How I was Adopted" by Joanna Cole.

This book has been a huge hit with my 5 year old, who was adopted from China. She absolutely loves the idea of fingerprints and how they are a tangible gift from her birth family. They make her unique. The author does such a wonderful job telling the truth about adoption in a sensitive and loving way but without the fantasy of ladybugs and red threads.

Forever fingerprints has opened some honest and lovely conversations about adoption. I am amazed at how open and easy my daughter talks about the book and how it relates to her personal story.

This book is a must for all families who have been touched by adoption, schools, and libraries as it serves to easily normalize adoption in our lives today.

This children's story uses a relative's pregnancy as a springboard for discussions on birthparents and adoption. I could relate to this, since some of my best adoption-related discussions with my 6 adopted kids have come in talk about an aunt's pregnancy.

I found the story interesting and thought that the child's questions in the book would encourage children to ask their own questions. This is more than just an adoption book, though. It talks about the fact that everyone grows inside someone.

I've read that this is something that not all young adoptees understand. They know they didn't grow from their adoptive mom, but they don't really understand that they did come from someone. The book gives a gentle, non-detailed talk about the facts of life (ie, there is a special way that a man and woman come together to make a baby), so you might be prepared to provide your child with more details if he has more questions after hearing this story.

The pictures in this book are sweet, and feature hands of many colors. The book even comes with a stamp pad so that you can do a fingerprinting activity with your child. The author is an adopted person herself, and she addresses the issues surrounding adoption with honesty, compassion, and hope. This book would be a good addition to a family library and just might offer a good opening for your child to ask questions that have been troubling him.

Innovative, creative, and magical, FOREVER FINGERPRINTS is a gem, and will forever change the way I think about my own adoption and birthfamily from Taipei & Jiangsu Province, China. I can't wait to share Sherrie Eldridge's book with family, friends, and children around the world! Highly recommended.

Our adopted daughter was eager to read and "do" the Forever Fingerprints book she received as a gift. What I didn't expect was the eagerness of her brother to join in as the three of us used the accompanying pad to stamp and examine our fingerprints. The message was loud and clear--we're all unique and yet we share so much in common.

I also appreciated the natural weaving in of important truths about how babies grow and are born. Being adopted is a way of entering a family--but we're all born the same way.

The pictures are great--and the focus on hands instead of faces makes the book even more intriguing as well as inclusive. It's not a book about a particular kind of adoption--it's about a girl who is adopted and could be any girl.

This book will be wonderful to revisit and to share.

This is a cute story with some truth behind the story and an easy way to explain to an adoptive child how they are connected to their birth parents. Our 7 year old enjoyed the book and loves to read. I did find the story written more for a young child as it's too silly for me and a little bit silly for our serious 7 year old.

We recently used the book Forever Fingerprints when a young child was being placed with his new adoptive family. His birth mother and adoptive mother read him the book and then both he and his birth mother made their finger/hand prints on the paper that was provided. It was a very touching moment.

Sherrie, the author, was kind and personally inscribed two books, one for the child, and one for his birth mother. They both have copies of the fingerprints taken that day.

This book is a wonderful way to support children in respecting their biological roots. It is appropriate for use in entrustment ceremonies.

Thank you Sherrie for writing this beautiful book.

Having read the book, and read back to me by my adopted son, I would say this book does not give adopted kids a good image of where adopted kids come from.

There are times when the book get into too much details, it almost sounded like this is more for adults than young children.

"Forever Fingerprints: An Amazing Discovery for Adopted Children" contains amazing truth for adoptees of any age, and is authored by the renown adoption expert, Sherrie Eldridge. As an adult adoptee, I felt this children's book spoke truth to me, as well--that I have "Forever Fingerprints," like my DNA. It resonated with the beautifully intricate graphic that Sherrie Eldridge recently put on her website of the DNA strand, it reminded me of the Scripture Isaiah 49:16 from The Amplified Bible--"Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; [O Zion] your walls are continually before Me." "Forever Fingerprints" just like my DNA reminds me that it is God who knit me together in your mother's womb. For more wisdom and insight from Sherrie Eldridge, check out her website and her blog: [...] Sherrie gives voice to the adopted in very visual ways in "Forever Fingerprints" as well as her description of "THE BEAUTIFUL BRAID OF ADOPTION...Long ago in eternity past, God determined that He would make a beautiful braid, and He called it Adoption. The braid has four ribbons: red for the adoptee, green for the birth parents, purple for the adoptive parents, and the golden strand for His Sovereignty that weaves our lives together...God planned who my birth parents would be and who my Mom and Dad would be. Both influences, plus His, are needed to help us become all that He created us to be."

My 8 year old daughter, adopted from China, loves this book! I am also an adoptee and I also love it. It's one of our favorite books. For the last few years she has asked me to bring it to school and read it to her classmates. It's a great way to introduce the idea and issue of adoption to children who are not adopted. I start off by asking if anyone else in the class is adopted, then I explain that my daughter is - that's why she doesn't look like me and that I am adopted too. I read the book and then answer their questions. There are many of them that have not even heard of adoption before and even more who have never had the opportunity to ask questions about it. I love getting to educate all people about adoption - especially kids - and this is a wonderful tool to use.