We kicked off our ‘Let’s Talk Adoption’ series of talks and content during National Reading Week with a virtual talk by award winning adoption author Holly Marlow!
We were thrilled to have an excellent response to the event with lots of adopters and people going through the process in attendance.
Holly is an author and a parent to biological and adopted children. Holly strives for a gentle/therapeutic parenting style and this has led her to create stories to help children to understand some of the emotional and practical complexities of adoption. Holly’s book ‘Delly Duck – Why a little chick couldn’t stay with his birth mother’ is the winner of the Book Authority ‘Best Adoption Books of All Time’ award; her other titles include ‘Room in the nest’ and various other adoption and fostering stories.
Holly said, “I really enjoyed chatting with adopters and social workers from Western Bay Adoption about all kinds of adoption-related topics, including attachment, life story work, contact, and preparing birth children for a sibling joining the family.”
Some books that Holly recommended include “My Adoption Diary” by Joseph Young who adopted with his husband and “Reuben’s Story: From Birth to Adoption” by Joseph Clifton. A full list of book recommendations from Holly can be found on the links below.
Some TV shows that feature adoption that Holly also discussed which have been useful include: Chip and Potato (Season 3 has a zebra Dad couple), The Ice Princess (a dinosaur is adopted by a bird), Hey Duggee (the crocodile has an elephant Mum). Again a full list can be found on the links below.
One of our adopters Zoe said, “We really enjoyed the talk last night that Holly gave, what we found great was that she also had a birth child who was exactly the same age as our daughter and we are about to enter stage 2.
Her story really helped to reassure us, as we sometimes worry about if the children would have difficulties creating a bond. We also appreciated her being open about the challenges that she and her family faced – thank you so much and we are looking forward to future events hearing first hand from established adopters who have done amazing work and support to the wider UK adoption community.”
Holly’s talk is part of our Let’s Talk Adoption series of content which features a range of virtual and in person talks from recognisable adopters and influencers from the community. We’re also going to dig a bit deeper into the topics with content featuring WBAS social workers, therapists and adopters. The next instalment in the series is in person with author Rosemary Lucas on World Book Day Thursday 2 March in Neath Port Talbot. If you can’t make/missed the Rosemary talk a recording will be made available.
For a list of Holly’s reading recommendations click here
For a list of TV shows and other tips Holly shares about talking to children about adoption, click here
All of Holly’s books are available on Amazon
To book Holly for future events or talks click here
We also highly recommend that you follow Holly on Facebook or Instagram – she is a regular poster with a combination of funny things her kids do and sharing insights to how early developmental trauma shows in her son’s behaviours etc.
To discuss any of the topics covered here please reach out to the team here
Visit and follow our YouTube channel for the Holly talk and other WBAS content here
#LetsTalkAdoption