A personalised book about racing

Speed is a feeling children understand with their whole body. Anyone who has whizzed down a hill on a bike or run so fast the wind roars in their ears already knows what racing is about. A book about racing puts your child behind the wheel of a car with a number on the door and a team waiting in the pit lane. It becomes a story about practising, taking the corner just right and keeping a cool head when someone overtakes. It's also a book about how you can lose a race and still win something else.

A racing book can be about the race itself, but a lot of the excitement happens around it. Your child can build the car together with the team, change the tyres in a few seconds in the pits, stop mid-race to help a driver who has spun off the track or drive through a cloudburst while everyone else slows down. It could also be a soapbox race down the hill at home. Before the race come the practice laps, when your child learns the track corner by corner and the mechanic fine-tunes the car.

Let your child choose the car's colour and number – perhaps their age, perhaps a lucky number. Write in who's waiting in the pits and who's cheering in the stands. If your child has been go-karting, raced down a hill on a sledge or ridden a bike round a track, that can be how the book begins, and the little toy car that always lives in a pocket can be the model for the racing car. The helmet can match your child's favourite coat.

A small child loves the sounds: vroom, beep, toot, and a finish line with cheering. A four- or five-year-old likes a short race where everyone takes part and everyone gets a trophy at the end. Six-year-olds can face a real choice, like winning or stopping to help, while an eleven-year-old's season can stretch over several races with setbacks, new parts and a grand final. If your child would rather run or play ball, have a look at the theme Sport.

On a racetrack, people talk with flags, because the drivers can't hear anything over the engines. The black-and-white chequered flag means the race is over. A yellow flag means danger ahead: slow down and no overtaking. A red flag means the race is stopped and everyone must pull up. Make your own paper flags afterwards and let your child be the marshal when you race toy cars across the floor.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about racing 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.