I am absolutely thrilled about this review and competition today. As a child, I loved reading. I would read rather than ride a bike, or climb a tree. Why would I want to ride down the dusty road of a border town when I could be off exploring a castle with the Famous Five, or solving a mystery with my best friend, Nancy Drew? Why would I want to be dirtying my shoes by kicking a ball when the Hardy Boys were off on a grand adventure? Holidays were the best times. I’d start reading a book in the morning and keep reading till the early hours of the morning, then dream about the story. I loved it so much.

There are so many studies and bits of research that say we should read to our children, both for what it does for them

developmentally, and for the bonding and quality time. I’ll admit, I didn’t see the point before this last month or so, as Ameli would squirm and really pay attention for less than a minute, but now we can read a whole book (one of those with one or two lines to a page) and she loves it.  We’re not perfect parents either – it’s not something we  manage every night, but when we do, we do!

That’s why I loved the concept behind the Your Surprise Personalised Books. There’s a massive selection of themes, and we chose the Animals book as Ameli is big on her animals at the moment.

There are so many little things that we loved about this service.

We were able to add Ameli to the story, as well as her age and where she lives. (So the first paragraph reads e.g.: Ameli, aged two, left London for her trip to the farm), and include some of her friends. We included Deshaine, Lindi and Abbi as those are pretty much her favourite people at this stage of her life.

There was the option for a personalised message, and the date you want to commemorate, such as a birthday.

The book arrived less than a week after our order packaged in a book envelope. I was surprised to find a hardback book with a glossy cover and we simply love the quality of it.

The story is quite sweet, in this case about a visit to a farm, and her friends are included in the text, such as ‘I can’t wait to tell Deshaine, Abbi and Lindi all about my visit when I get back to London’.  Ameli enjoyed it and loves hearing her name, although she hasn’t managed to sit through the whole story yet.

For her age it would be great if the book included a picture of her, but the book isn’t really aimed at her age, so I can’t complain too much.  But I must add that the artwork in the book was beautiful. It wasn’t child-like, wasn’t all in pinks, and wasn’t the child version of pigs, horses and so on – they are real lookalikes of real animals, and that really impressed me, as it’s great for us to identify the different animals.

Competition

You can win a personalised book for your little one (or someone elses. Or not so little one). To be in with a chance to win, simply visit Your Surprise, select which of the 17 titles you’d like, and the name of the person you’d like it personalised with. Leave a comment below, and voila, you’re entered.

Competition ends 23:59 18 July, and the winner will be picked at random using Random.org.

You can follow Your Surprise (and Diary of a First Child) on Facebook. If you do, be sure to let them (Your Surprise) know I sent you, and leave a comment below to tell me you have.  (They don’t post a lot, so you won’t be inundated, but they do post fab special offers in time for all the big gift giving days!)

And the winner is Susannah Glover

You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you giveaways! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS or email. You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!