Life Story Books: What They Are, Examples, and How to Make One (Including for Dementia Care)
A life story book is a record of one person's life, made for their family rather than for publication. It gathers memories, photos, and keepsakes in one volume, usually organized by life chapter. Three types come up again and again: the dementia-care life story book that carers use every day, the printed keepsake made through a service like StoryWorth or Remento, and the book a family makes itself. This guide covers all three, with a page-by-page template and a cost comparison.
What is a life story book?
A life story book documents one person's experiences, in their own words, for the people who love them. Where a published autobiography is written to interest strangers, a life story book is written for family. It can include details no outside reader would care about: the name of a childhood dog, the recipe that appeared at every holiday, the story behind a wedding photo.
That difference in audience changes what goes in. Life story books commonly hold things a traditional memoir leaves out: letters, ticket stubs, report cards, family recipes, photographs with handwritten captions. The same events told by two siblings would produce two different books, and that's the point. The book records what the events meant to the person telling them.
The phrase also has a second, more specific meaning in dementia care, where a "life story book" is a practical tool carers use daily. More on that below.
What are the three main types of life story book for adults?
The phrase covers three different things, and the right one depends on who the book is for.
1. The dementia-care life story book. A short, sturdy book of facts, photos, and preferences that helps carers and care staff know the person behind the diagnosis. Dementia UK describes it as a kind of fact file: the person's background, interests, relationships, and what matters to them, shared with family and care professionals. It's a working document, updated as needs change, and it often lives on a bedside table rather than a shelf.
2. The printed keepsake from a subscription service. Services like StoryWorth and Remento send a storyteller questions by email or text over a year (StoryWorth's cadence is weekly), collect the answers, and print them as a hardcover. StoryWorth starts at $59 for weekly questions and one hardcover book. Remento charges $99, records spoken answers instead of written ones, turns the recordings into written stories, and prints a book with QR codes that play the original audio. The result is a real book on a real shelf, built gradually over a year.
3. The self-made book. No service, no subscription. You interview the person yourself, gather photos and documents, write or transcribe the stories, and print through any photo-book printer. It takes the most effort and gives you the most control over what the book contains and how it reads. The template later in this guide is built for this route.
Many families combine approaches: a recorded video interview first, then a book assembled from the transcript and photos. The recording preserves the voice; the book makes the stories easy to hand to a grandchild.
What goes in a life story book for dementia care?
A dementia life story book serves the present as much as the future. Dementia UK's guidance on creating a life story lists the benefits: it strengthens the person's sense of identity, offers comfort through familiar memories, prompts reminiscence, and helps care staff understand preferences they would otherwise have to guess at.
Their suggested contents are concrete:
- Personal details, languages spoken, and important relationships
- Cultural and religious beliefs, and celebrations that matter
- Work history and lifelong interests
- Preferences about food, appearance, music, and daily routine
- Relevant health conditions
Format matters as much as content. Dementia UK describes several that work: a portable book with clear text and photos, a collage built mostly from images, a memory box of tactile objects, video recordings, and a one-page profile that travels with the person into hospital.
Their practical advice for making one: involve the person throughout, work in short sessions at their pace, use photos as prompts, be gentle around painful memories, and keep the book updated rather than treating it as finished. One test of our own: if the person enjoys the sessions, you're doing it right. Structured reminiscence of this kind is closely related to life review, a practice with its own history in geriatric care.
One addition worth making early: record some of these conversations on video, even on a phone. A dementia life story book built while the person can still tell the stories is far richer than one assembled later from other people's recollections.
Is there a life story book template?
Yes. Here is a page-by-page structure you can use as-is or trim. Each section lists the prompts that produce the best material. For a deeper prompt bank, Telloom publishes 640+ interview questions organized by category.
| Section | Pages | Prompts to work from |
|---|---|---|
| Title page and dedication | 1 | Whose story, written for whom, and the year |
| The basics | 1 to 2 | Full name and its origin, birthplace, parents' and grandparents' names |
| Early childhood | 2 to 4 | What did the house you grew up in look like? What did a normal Saturday hold? Who lived with you? |
| School years | 2 to 3 | A teacher you still think about. What you were good at, and what you got in trouble for |
| Family of origin | 2 to 4 | What were your parents like as people, apart from being parents? Family sayings, meals, rituals |
| Work and calling | 2 to 3 | Your first job and first paycheck. The work you were proudest of. What you would have done in another life |
| Love and partnership | 2 to 3 | How you met. The early years. What you learned about staying together |
| Raising a family | 2 to 4 | What surprised you about becoming a parent? A hard season and how you got through it |
| Places and moves | 1 to 2 | Every address you can remember, and which one felt most like home |
| Beliefs and turning points | 2 to 3 | A decision that changed everything. What you believe now that you did not at 25 |
| Recipes and keepsakes | 2 to 4 | The dish you are known for, written out. Photos of two or three objects and the story behind each |
| Messages to the future | 1 to 2 | What do you want your great-grandchildren to know about you? |
| Family tree | 1 | Three or four generations, names and dates |
That's roughly 25 to 35 pages, which is enough. A finished 30-page book beats an abandoned 200-page project.
Two working tips. First, gather materials before you write: photographs, letters, certificates, and documents trigger memories that direct questions never reach. Second, do the storytelling out loud. Most people talk far more freely than they write, so interview, record, and transcribe rather than handing someone a blank page. Our guide to interviewing your parents about their life covers how to run those conversations.
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What does a finished page look like?
Here is an example page we wrote to show the format. The names and details are invented.
The House on Delancey Street
We moved to Delancey Street in 1961, when I was seven. Four rooms above my uncle's tailor shop, and you could hear the sewing machines through the floor until six every evening. My mother said the noise would drive her mad. By the time we left she said she could not sleep without it.
Sunday mornings my father walked me to the bakery on the corner for a seeded rye, still warm, and we ate the heel of it on the walk home before anyone knew it was missing. That is my clearest memory of him. Not the big occasions. The bread.
[Photo: Ruth, age 8, on the front stoop, 1962. Caption in her handwriting: "Me, before I lost the tooth."]
Notice what makes it work: one place, one or two scenes, a specific object, and a photo with a caption. A page like this takes a 10-minute conversation to produce. You don't need fine writing. You need the seeded rye.
How is a recorded video life story different from a book?
A book preserves the stories. A video preserves the person: the voice, the pauses, the laugh, the way a hand moves when a story gets good. The book is what gets browsed. The video is what gets watched on the hard days.
The two formats also fail differently. A book can sit unread but never becomes unplayable; a video needs someone minding the files and formats over decades. And they're made differently: a book rewards editing and arrangement, while a video interview rewards good questions asked in the right order on a day the person feels like talking.
The practical answer is sequence, not either-or. Record the interviews first, on video, while the telling is easy. Then build the book from the transcript and photos. The recording session produces the raw material for both, which is why a legacy video for a parent pairs naturally with a life story book project rather than replacing it.
This is the approach Telloom is built around. The self-serve platform ($10 a month or $99 a year) gives a storyteller the prompt library and records video answers with transcripts. For families who want it done properly in one or two sittings, Telloom's professional life story recording sessions run from $1,750 for a remote guided interview to $5,500 for a two-day in-person production at launch pricing, with in-person sessions in the New York metro area and remote sessions anywhere in the US. If you'd rather run the camera yourself, our guide to recording family video interviews covers setup with the gear you already own.
How much does a life story book cost?
| Option | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-made book | Your time, plus photo-book printing | Full control over content and design | Families with a willing interviewer and patience |
| StoryWorth | From $59 | A year of weekly emailed questions, one hardcover of the written answers | Storytellers who like to write |
| Remento | $99 | A year of spoken prompts, stories written from the recordings, hardcover with QR codes to the audio | Storytellers who would rather talk |
| Telloom self-serve | $10/month or $99/year | 640+ video prompts in 50 categories, recorded video answers with transcripts | Families who want video first, book second |
| Telloom professional session | $1,750 to $8,000 ($1,750 to $5,500 at launch) | A guided on-camera interview, remote or in-person NYC metro, with photo digitization on larger packages | One or two sittings, professionally run |
Prices checked September 2026 on each company's site. For a fuller breakdown of the video side, see what it costs to record a parent's life story on video.
The honest comparison: the subscription services are the cheapest way to end up with a finished book, because the steady drip of prompts does the project management for you. The self-made route costs the least in dollars and the most in follow-through. Video costs more and preserves more.
Frequently asked questions
What is a life story book for adults?
A life story book for adults is the kind described in this guide: usually made by or with an older parent or grandparent, either as a keepsake or as a dementia-care tool. The "for adults" qualifier exists because searches also surface books made for children in social care, which is a separate practice with its own methods.
How does a life story book differ from an autobiography or a memoir?
Audience and scope. An autobiography is written for general readers and covers a whole life in polished narrative; a memoir usually treats one theme or period. A life story book is made for family, has no publisher and no page minimum, and welcomes material no publisher would print: recipes, report cards, photo captions, a list of every address. If the writing itself is the appeal, start with our guide to writing an autobiography.
What is life story work in dementia care?
Life story work is the ongoing practice of gathering and using a person's history in their care, and the book is its main tool. Dementia UK notes it helps staff understand preferences, supports the person's sense of identity, and prompts reminiscence. The book is meant to be used and updated, not archived.
How long should a life story book be?
For a family keepsake, 25 to 60 pages is typical and 30 is plenty. For dementia care, shorter is better: a book the person can hold and browse in one sitting, with large text and one photo or story per page.
Do I need to be a good writer to make one?
No. The strongest life story books read like the person talks, because most of them started as conversation. Interview, record, transcribe, then lightly edit for clarity. Cleaning up a transcript is a much smaller job than writing, and the voice that survives is the whole point.
Should I make the book or the video first?
Video first, if the storyteller is able and willing. A recorded interview produces the transcript the book is built from, and it preserves the voice either way. If recording isn't possible, start the book anyway. An imperfect record beats none.
