Custom Made For Kids Illustrated Books

By Audrey van Petegem, Contributing Editor

I have three children, a boy and two girls, ranging from ages 3 to 16. Over the years, each of them has received several personalized books from friends and family. I have even bought a few myself, either online or at a kiosk at the local mall.  We have Christmas ones, birthday ones, “what I will be when I grow up” ones and so on.   They all are about the same quality and have the same pattern of inserting various names into various sentences.

Then I came across the Custom Made for Kids books. The book is titled “The First Adventures of the Incredible You”.  When I received the book the first thing that struck me was that it did not “look” like any of the other personalized book.  I had ordered this one for my youngest daughter’s third birthday. I was attracted by the bright, vivid and attractive illustrations.  The story is set in a limerick with very clever rhymes.  For example:

The first time you ride a two-wheeler bike,
you’ll fly down (name of your street) squealing delight.
That feeling of freedom and wind in your hair
will fill you with excitement but give (person) a scare.

It took all of 10 minutes to fill out the custom order form with the personalized information: the name of the child, other persons, places or things. I was able to name all the important people in my daughter’s life to be included in the book. I also got to make mention of the street that we live on, the park we always go to and Grandma’s chocolate pie!  When I read it to my daughter on her birthday, she and her sister were, to be quite honest, totally mesmerized.  They, of course, enjoyed hearing their names and those of people they know, but it was more than that.  They loved hearing about places they recognized!  They laughed at some of the rhymes and pointed out details in the illustrations.  We had to read it at least 10 times. It has been two days now and I feel that I already have the book memorized! I say that in a good way.

Two moms, Sarah Riley Headrick and Sarah Foreman Rivera wrote this book because they wanted to give friends and family members with young children a gift that was special and from the heart.  They received such rave reviews from everyone they decided to start a company to sell the book.  This is their first personalized book with plans on writing others.  Their target age, for either boys or girls,  is up to age 8.  I look forward to seeing what other books they will write since my 5 year old daughter’s birthday is coming up soon!  Something with pink princesses, please! In the meanwhile you can order a personalized “The First Adventures” book on their website for $32.95.