A personalised book about Midsummer

In Sweden, Midsummer is the festival of light. The sun hardly sets, children stay up long past bedtime and the evening slides into night without ever getting dark. There are flower crowns to make, a maypole to raise and dance around, strawberries and games on the grass. All of it draws children in: movement, nature and grown-ups who suddenly hop about like frogs. A book about Midsummer captures that summer feeling and makes your child the one who sees what happens when everyone else has fallen asleep.

A Midsummer book can follow the child from flower-picking in the morning to the pale twilight of the evening: the crown being made, the maypole being dressed in birch leaves and raised, the ring dance where everyone hops like frogs, the herring and strawberries on the table. Games such as sack races and tug of war give the pictures plenty of pace.

Old beliefs make Midsummer Night a night when strange things can happen, and the book can make the most of that – little beings dancing in the meadow, a troll who wants to join the party, a forest where everything talks. Anyone who wants to go deeper into that world can look at fairies.

Write in where you celebrate: in a garden, on an island, in a city park or with family in the countryside. Who usually comes? Is there a game that always comes back, an uncle who plays the accordion, a lake where someone always swims even though it's freezing?

Details like these help your child recognise their own Midsummer. The food, the weather and the flowers that grow where you are can have a place too. If it usually rains on your Midsummer, let it rain in the book as well, with dancing under a tarpaulin and strawberries in a soggy paper bowl.

In Sweden, Midsummer's Eve always falls on a Friday between 19 and 25 June. An old tradition says that anyone who picks seven kinds of flowers in silence and puts them under their pillow will dream of their future sweetheart. The festival sits close to the summer solstice, when the days are at their longest, and in the far north of Sweden the sun doesn't set at all for a few weeks around that time.

For small children it's enough that the book has flowers, sunshine and hopping frogs. Pre-schoolers love the dancing and the games, and from about six the story can offer a touch of Midsummer-night mystery. After reading, why not pick seven kinds of flowers together, and ask in the morning what your child dreamt about?

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