Are you children struggling with reading? Or are they just beginning to read and need all the possible encouragement? There are many ways to help your child, and a personalised book is one of the great props which will boost your child's interest in reading.
When the opportunity arose to review a book from
love2read, I jumped at the chance. Caroline Edwards, the brain behind this business has background in teaching and knows exactly how to help the young readers.
She has started the business initially to inspire her own child with special needs "to start picking up books and to help her to recognise words".
The site is very easy to navigate. Customers can upload up to 10 digital images to create their own unique reading book.
The choice of titles is pretty amazing: you get all the possible family members and occasions. I loved that you can choose the word that you use the most at home, for example, you could do a book about Daddy or Dad, Papa, Dada...
Caroline says:
"The aim of each unique book is to help your child develop a love of reading. It does this by presenting photographs which reflect your child’s world and relating them to simple words. Research shows that if your child loves books they will learn to read much faster and you will be encouraging a lifelong love of reading.
The key words in each book are known as “high frequency ” words, which are some of the first words your child will be taught to recognise when they start school."
I wanted to make a book for my younger son. I was torn between so many good topics to choose from. Should I make a book about our holidays in Cornwall? About our stay at the grandparents' in Italy? A book about Papa? Choices, choices. I have finally decided that Eddie will love to read about about his older brother and himself.
It is very easy to add the photos to the book template once you pick your title. You can adjust the photo to fit in the given frame and choose the colour of the frame. You can then personalise the text and make it relevant to your young reader. The personalised front cover is automatically generated from the photos you have added to the first four pages of your book.
Let me tell you, we love the book. My Mum who is visiting us this month was going Oh and Ah, and "Could I have one as well?" And wouldn't the Italian grandma love one too? Eddie was delighted to see a book where he and his brother appear on every page.
The final result reminded me of the social story book we have done at home for my older son who has autism. We made a book for him "When Papa is away" to help him cope better with his Dad's business trips. I imagine that love2read books could make excellent social stories, if they expand the possibilities of the blank book template, so that the customers could choose their own titles and key words (at the moment every sentence starts with the same word. For example, our book starts with "My brother". I appreciate that the repetition here works for a young learner, as they gain confidence with their reading, but social stories could be another venue to explore, and as far as I know nobody does customised social stories that you can do in the similar fashion).
It is a beautiful little edition that we'll treasure forever. A brilliant way to preserve the precious memories and encourage your little one to read at the same time.
The book costs £14.99 each + postage, there are discounts if you order more than one.
To find more about Love2Read visit
Love2Read books Facebook page.
Disclosure: we were offered a free code to create a book and write a review, all opinions are my own.
As rated by the Varese family: 10/10
