Anyone who grew up in the 1980s with an unusual or slightly different name will know the torment of walking into a gift shop and not being able to find one personalised hat, pen, door sign, keyring, magnet….all the essential ‘must have’ items for a nine year old girl. With a big brother called Ben I’m pretty sure he bought everything he possibly could emblazoned with his name just to gleefully display it next to my homemade headband with ‘Bryony’ written on in felt tip pen.
You’d have thought this childhood ordeal would have led me to insist that our boys be named something mainstream and widely available in pencil cases, but no. There’s a long story about how our oldest boy came to be named ‘Renner’ but it was his name long before he arrived and suits him to a (non personalised) tee.
Luckily gifts have come a long way since the 1980s – and even luckier for us we discovered the amazing books over at Create Me Books just in time for Christmas. (although we were way too impatient not to open and enjoy it immediately!)
There are so many things I love about our book. I’ve considered a few personalised books in the past but this one stood out in a lot of ways – the first being that it isn’t just the name you can personalise. You get to choose skin and hair colour, hair style, the colour of your Prince’s tunic or your Princess’s dress and even add different styles of glasses so your little one can really see themselves on the pages and imagine themselves in the story.
Another way this book became even more special was the opportunity to write a dedication on the first page – you get to imagine yourself as an author and write an everlasting message to your little one that they will be able to treasure forever.
It was also as if the storyline of the book had been personalised for our little man too – ‘Prince Renner Won’t go to Bed’ could be the title of any movie made about nap time or bed time in our house!
Not tired mum!
There are so many delights throughout the pages for little boys – a fire breathing dragon, frogs, a cheeky troll and a sly fox – and of course the main character on a big adventure. I also had a sneak peak at the girls’ version as a gift for our niece and was instantly in love with the beautiful Princess and her woodland friends and unicorn.
What also resonated with me was reading more about the creator – Lisa – who created the book 100% self funded and has gone from strength to strength.
Reading is a huge part of my life and I have been so excited to share my love for books with our boys – it is even more exciting to be able to feature them in their own adventures!
Never too young to enjoy a good book
The book is made in the UK but is shipped WorldWide – with postage only taking about 10 days to Australia. You can even create and preview your book before buying – head over to the Create Your Book tab on the menu and get started.
Now if only I can find somewhere that stocks personalised rainbow My Little Pony headbands…..
**Our book was kindly gifted to us for the purpose of this review but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Leave a Reply