A personalised book about the alphabet

Letters are small marks with big promises. The first one a child learns to recognise is often the one their own name begins with, and after that it pops up everywhere: on the milk carton, on the street sign, on the postcard from Granny. A picture book where your child's name carries the whole alphabet makes the letters personal. A letter is no longer a line in an exercise book but something your child has lived through, a word to point at and say out loud. And the awkward ones at the end, X and Z, which so many ABC books rush past, get a proper place of their own.

An alphabet adventure doesn't have to go politely in order. It can start with the letter in your child's name and then track down the others one by one: an O rolling away like a wheel, a T balancing on a fence, a Y that looks like a tree with its arms in the air. In every picture a letter can hide in something everyday – a twig, a window frame, a strand of spaghetti. English has 26 letters, and the last few, the ones that hardly ever start a word, can have a scene of their own at the end, where the journey comes home.

What makes an alphabet book your child's own is the words. Write in things your child actually says and loves: C for Cosmo the cat, B for Grandad's boat, P for pancakes on Saturdays. The initials of brothers, sisters and friends fit in too, as do the name of your street and the name of the nursery. If your child has a long name, several of its letters can turn up one after another, like friends joining the journey. A child who recognises their own word in the book will point at it and say it out loud, over and over, and that's when a letter gets a face.

For the youngest, aged 0–2, it's mostly about sound and rhythm: short lines where the same letter keeps bouncing back. At 3–5 the letters get a simple plot to belong to, and your child can hunt for their own letter on the pages. A seven-year-old who reads alone often enjoys a riddle to crack or a word to spell backwards. At 10+ the text grows longer and can carry a mystery in which the letters are the clues.

After reading, go on a letter hunt at home. Find all the letters of your child's name on the packets in the kitchen cupboard, or write them with a stick in the sand. Next time you visit the library, your child can choose a book whose title begins with the same letter as their name.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about the alphabet is written for your very own child, and the thirteen pictures and the cover are drawn from the photo in the style you choose. Brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or the pet can come along, up to five characters. If you would like to include something that has happened lately, a trip or a lost tooth, just write it and it is woven in.

The eBook is ready a few minutes after payment. Read it, change the text and ask for new pictures until you are happy. Then order it as an A4 hardback book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the audiobook or the colouring pages. Start creating the book or read more about the prices. Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.