A personalised book about dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are real monsters that truly existed, and it's hard to imagine anything more thrilling for a child. They were enormous, had long and peculiar names, and yet you can never meet one. A child who can say triceratops and knows what it ate knows something plenty of grown-ups don't. In a picture book, your child gets to travel where no human has ever been, stand next to a giant taller than a house and discover that even the biggest creature sometimes needs a small friend.

A dinosaur book can be a journey back in time or a day when a dinosaur turns up in the nursery playground. Your child can help a youngster find its way back to the herd, shelter under a long-neck when it rains, measure a footprint with their own steps or become best friends with a dinosaur who is scared of butterflies. The huge and dangerous becomes warm and understandable. Volcanoes in the distance, a downpour among giant leaves, a river that has to be crossed on somebody's back – the setting does a lot of the work.

Ask your child which dinosaur is their favourite and write it in. If they have a soft-toy dinosaur with its own name, it can come along as a character. If you've been to a museum and seen a skeleton, that makes a lovely start to the story, and if a brother or sister prefers a different kind, they can each have their own dinosaur in the book. If you'd like a ready-made idea to start from, there's Dinosaur Day.

A two-year-old likes sounds and sizes: big, small, stomp, stomp, and a dinosaur falling asleep. At pre-school age, a story about helping a youngster home works well, with just the right amount of rumbling along the way. Many school-age children want real names and facts baked in, like the big plates along the stegosaurus's back and the fact that some dinosaurs had feathers. For the oldest readers, the book can be an adventure with a touch of real danger and a wise decision at the end.

The dinosaurs died out a very long time ago, long before there were any people. But birds are descended from them, and today scientists count birds as one branch of the dinosaur family tree. Next time a magpie hops across the lawn, look at its feet together. Don't they look like the footprints in the book? Everything we know about dinosaurs comes from fossils: bones, teeth and footprints that have turned to stone.

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