A personalised book about the library

At the library, a child is given something unusual: the right to choose entirely for themselves from shelf after shelf of books, and to take them home without it costing anything. It's a place with its own sounds and its own rules, a library card with your very own name on it and a corner where the picture books sit at child height. A book about the library is really about reading itself. Your child gets to be the one who steps into a story and out again, and discovers that books are something you can hunt out all on your own.

A library book can begin with story time on the floor, everyone sitting in a circle and your child turning the pages for the reader. Your child might return a book and discover a page is missing, then search the whole building for it. They might help a younger child find the right box of board books. Or a character steps out of a book about space and needs help finding the way home.

The library is full of things that are fun to draw: trolleys of books, big windows, a globe, computers, newspapers in lots of languages and a machine that beeps when your books are checked out.

Tell us about your library, or the mobile library that stops on your street. Who usually comes along, which shelf does your child go to first, and what's the name of the person behind the desk? Write in the kinds of books your child borrows over and over – about dinosaurs, cars, horses – and those subjects can pop up between the lines. A brother or sister who's getting their first library card too can become a companion in the story. Perhaps you have a ritual, like going every Saturday and sharing a biscuit on the way home.

For a two-year-old, the book becomes a picture book in itself: book, picture, turn, look. A four-year-old gets a visit with a little story tucked inside the story. In the book for 6–9, a mystery fits well, with characters from different books lending a hand. An eleven-year-old can have longer chapters about a book that rewrites itself whenever someone reads it.

After reading, make a library card of your own for the bookshelf at home, or a list where your child draws every book you've read together. Anyone who loves quiet evenings with books may also enjoy a bedtime story in which your child drifts off to sleep on the very last page.

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