REVIEW

If someone asked me to write a list of my favourite things, up near the top, after the obvious friends and family, would be photographs and books. I am a stickler for both. Despite my daughter being too young to read on her own, I have read a book to her pretty much every day of her life so far! Now she is nearly 3, her imagination is really coming to life, and she enjoys sitting on her chair in her room and “reading” to me, making up her own stories as she turns the pages. It is a lovely sight to see. She is also starting to recognise letters and their shapes, and therefore is showing signs of understanding how different words are formed.

Erin also loves looking at photos of herself and her family. If she walks into a room where there is a framed picture of herself or one of her parents / grandparents, she will suddenly spot it, smile and say who it is – she recognises most of our wider family, and remembers the situation shown in the photographs. If ever she is grumpy and needs cheering up, I simply show her a picture of either a) Daddy or b) herself, and her signature grin is soon plastered back on her little face.

When given the opportunity to review the Love2Read personalised photo books, these seemed just perfect to combine my love of both books and photographs, and I couldn’t wait to design my book.

The Product

Love2Read was created by Caroline, who had the idea to use photos to create personalised reading books in orderÂ to help her middle child, who has special needs, learn to read. She made a book using photos of her family and it was a real hit, so she made some more using different words. She then noticed that her youngest child, who was only two at the time, was always picking up the homemade books and was reading them to anyone who would listen. Friends starting asking her to make books for their children and so Love2Read was born.

To create your book, you simply select from a range of template designs including My Daddy, My Mummy, I love… and My Special Day. With over 80 templates to the Love to Read site, there are plenty of options to choose from.

Once selected, you simply upload 10 photographs that you wish to be the imagery for your book using the webpage software provided. As you add your images you can see how they will appear on the page. The first four images used in the book automatically become the front cover of the design.

Underneath the images you can then add the narrative of your choice, as well as personalising the inside cover with a This book belongs to… and any message you wish to document.

The books cost £14.99 or reduce in price per unit when more than 2 books are purchased.

Gift vouchers are also available should you wish to purchase for someone else – but allow them to create the books themselves.

Our Experience

We decided to create a My Daddy book as a Father’s Day gift from my daughter to her Daddy. Although she is not of reading age, she is a big fan of a bedtime story, and loves it when Daddy and her have pre bedtime stories and cuddles. Having photographs of her favourite person inside was bound to make it a real hit, and I knew Mike would enjoy the experience.

Using the Love2Read website, we selected, after some long consideration, the 10 images we wished to use and uploaded them to the webpage, carefully selecting which four images we wanted to be on the front cover, and as such, in the first four pages of the template. You can rotate the images you want to use so they can be either portrait or landscape – this was handy as for some reason most of mine are portrait (probably as a lot were taken on my phone).

We made the story to be about Daddy and Erin’s adventures, and used semi rhyming narrative to describe the images (I’m no poet but this bit was fun!). I would’ve liked a couple of extra pages at the end as I wrote the poem in rhyming couplets, but that wasn’t a major issue! 🙂

Uploading photographs was really easy, even for those who are not particularly confident on the computer, and once we had finished our design, it was great to be able to virtually flick through the book and get a real feel for what the finished product would look like.

The book arrived around 2 working days after my order – I believe they offer two print runs a week, but either way, the turnaround time was very quick. As the book is paperback and not particularly thick, it was able to be delivered by royal mail straight into my letterbox which would’ve been perfect had I not been at home.

Once I tore open the envelope, I was really pleased with the My Daddy book inside. With a gloss front cover, and high quality print, and some of my favourite photographs printed inside, I couldn’t wait to show it to my daughter and see her response. It was exactly how I anticipated. As soon as she saw her Daddy on the inside of the pages, her face lit up, beaming from ear to ear and chuckling contently as I read her the words on the page. She also talked around the situations pictures, and what she could see, and after a few times of reading it, she would then talk me through it herself! 🙂 She particularly liked the photo of when Daddy saved her from the muddy puddle!

Overall we are really pleased with our Love2Read book, and think it is a perfect gift for anyone who wants a bedtime story to treasure for many years to come. The template nature of the design, means the books are perfect gifts for a variety of special occasions such as Valentines Day, Mothers/Fathers Day, Child’s Birthday or a year in review. We look forward to Erin giving her book to Daddy on Father’s Day! 🙂

Pros:

Very simple to create, using the website template provided.
A wide range of templates to choose from, meaning something to match every occasion.
Narrative is bespoke, meaning you can write very personal and unique content based on your own experiences.
High quality printing – the colour and sharpness of the photographs is very good.
Reasonable value for money, particularly if you buy more than one at a time.
Can be delivered through standard letter box – no need to wait in for delivery.
Quick turnaround time.
A perfect gift for special occasions or for anyone responsible for a bedtime story!
Not limited to one age group, as the content and difficulty of words within and up to the discretion of the author!
Great for children who may be struggling with separation anxiety, as a childminder or nursery practitioner could read it to them for reassurance.

Cons:

As a soft back book, if your child is very young like mine, the book could become a little dog eared and well loved relatively quickly. It would be great to see a hard back or board book version of the same design.
The book is bound using staples in the central fold of the pages. I would prefer it if the book was glue sealed as there is a small risk a younger child could reach out and touch the pages. However, a younger child is unlikely to be left alone reading it.

You can learn more about Love2Read personalised books on their website here – http://www.love2read.co.uk/

*Disclaimer – I was sent this book free of charge in return for my honest review. All views and opinions are my own.