Losing Jessica [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Robby DeBoer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1995 | Series: Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series

The mother who was forced to give up her adopted daughter in the world-famous Baby Jessica custody battle presents her story, movingly arguing for changes in the adoption system. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although DeBoer lobbies mightily for children's rights here, her self-interest, expressed with extreme emotionalism, underpins this vexed book and ultimately obscures that larger issue. The author re-creates her custody battle over her adopted daughter, Jessica, who was born out of wedlock to Clara Clausen on February 7, 1991, and returned to her birth parents on August 2, 1993. During the course of the custody hearings, Clara married her daughter's biological father, Dan Schmidt, who had not legally renounced claim to his child; the case was argued in both Iowa, where the Schmidts live, and Michigan, home state of the author and her husband, Jan. DeBoer presents her household as utterly child-centered: in her account, she devoted all of her time to Jessica, and Jan frequently took days off from his job as a printer to be with his child. The Schmidts are shown only to their discredit: Clara initially named her fiance as the father of her child, although she was simultaneously sexually intimate with Dan, a truck driver, who years earlier had abandoned two children he had fathered by two different women. The psychic and financial turmoil caused to the DeBoers and to their families by the custody battle is made so palpable that readers will weep; yet the Schmidts' anguish, which one assumes to have been no less real, is not considered in these pages. DeBoer wants us to see Jessica as victimized by the legal system, which favors biological parents, but thoughtful readers will need a disinterested account of the case before deciding. Photos not seen by PW . 100,000 first printing; first serial to Redbook; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This story-behind-the-story of Robby and Jan DeBoer's battle to keep their adopted daughter will get coverage on the Today show, a 15-city author tour, and a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 563 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786203714
• ISBN-13: 978-0786203710
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,595,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking book, March 14, 2004

By 

Maria L. Fenge (Aarhus, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing Jessica (Hardcover)

Yesterday I read "Losing Jessica" and I cried. It is so heartbreaking that a little girl (and her parents, Robby and Jan Deboer) was taken away from her loving family. She had a big, loving family and was so close to especially her mother.
I have at little boy, who is 2½ years old, and I can't imagine how he would feel, if he had to move to another home just like that. I have been so sad since I read the book, and I think a lot about how Jessica feels today. Does she remember her parents and her early years? Is she happy? etc.
I can really recommend this book and will never forget it. I keep thinking about it all the time.
If anyone knows how Jessica is today, and also how Robby and Jan Deboer are doing, I would very much like to know: [e-mail]
Is it possible to write to Robby and Jan Deboer?
Maria L. Fenge, Denmark

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-wrenching...lived through this with them, November 12, 2010

By 

momof3inMI - See all my reviews

This review is from: Losing Jessica (Hardcover)

This story gripped the nation. It had every parent wondering what they would do in a similiar circumstance. I remember when this was happening. I reside in the Detroit area, and this was at every angle, every newspaper and every tree had a ribbon to support the DeBoers.
This case was a terrible miscarriage of justice for this family.That child was tormented for a long time over this matter. I remember being out and about and that was the only thing that people talked about, and the night before the transfer, reporters decended upon us....everywhere...
I think that the DeBoers should have been able to keep her, as they were the only ones that raised her until that point. She was their daughter, and the way this was handled was just sickening.
I am an adopted child and I think that is why this hits home for me. I kept all the clippings of the stories from 1993, that warm August day that any Detroiter will NEVER forget. God bless the DeBoers for what they went through, but the cost to them was far more than most realize. Their lives collapsed after this happened, and suddenly nobody was around to help them. This book is a great story that hopefully will help for laws to be changed to prevent this from happening again.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A sad story of an adoptiom gone wrong, November 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Losing Jessica (Hardcover)

After reading the book, seeing the movie and reading the reviews. I have to wonder. What were the authorities thinking. Here we have adopted parents, who went into this with good intentions. Than you have a woman, who lied several times and whoeveryone forgives for causing all this. Than there's Dan Schmit, who is lied too and forgives Cara. Okay so he made mistakes, haven't we all. This child should have been taken immediately and placed in a foster home till things were worked out. But the authorities allowed the Deboers to keep and nuture her.
Now both couples are divorced and there are three children being raised by single parents. Go figure!