A personalised book about learning to tell the time

There's a clock on the wall in almost every kitchen, but rarely does anyone explain it properly. “In a quarter of an hour” and “half past six” are hard words until they connect with something your child actually does. In a picture book, time can take shape: breakfast when the short hand points to seven, the bus leaving when the long hand stands straight up. When your child is the one keeping track of time in the story, the clock face becomes something to understand, instead of something grown-ups glance at anxiously in the hall.

A clock book can follow a single day hour by hour: the alarm at seven, a snack at three, bath time when the long hand has gone all the way round once more. It can also be about getting there in time, a race against the hands before the train leaves or before the sun goes down. The English way of telling the time has its own knots, and they can find a place in the story. When the long hand points to the 3 it means fifteen minutes, not three, and “twenty-five to” is a phrase that puzzles plenty of children.

Your child's day already has its fixed times, and those are what the book can build on. Write in when you usually wake up, when it's snack time at nursery, when a parent gets home from work and what time Saturday's film starts. If you have a special clock at home – a cuckoo clock on the wall, an alarm clock shaped like an owl, or a watch your child was given as a present – it can appear in the pictures. If something to do with time has happened recently, a train you nearly missed or a morning when everyone overslept, it can become the start of the book.

At 0–2 the clock is mostly a sound, tick and tock, and the day splits into morning, mealtimes and night. A four-year-old can begin to tell the short hand from the long one and get a grip on words like before and after. At 6–9 a story where the minutes really matter fits well, with quarters and half-hours part of the plan. For 10+ the book can play with time zones or with a clock that stubbornly insists on running backwards.

After reading, make your own clock from a paper plate with two cardboard hands. Set the hands to the next thing happening today, dinner for example, and let your child call out when the kitchen clock shows the same.

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