REVIEW – Penwizard Personalised Books

As our regular readers will know, here at RMR we are BIG book lovers, and in our opinion there is nothing better than a personalised book – one that a child can grow up with, recognising names, places or photographs as they turn every page.

When I was a girl, I had a personalised book and I felt so special to have my own name feature in the text – it was like the whole story had been written especially for me!! I have fond memories of sitting with my Nan and being read my very own story, and I was keen for my daughter to have the same experience.

With her 1st birthday just a few months away *sob* I decided it would be lovely to create a special book as a birthday present from Mummy and Daddy.

The Product

Penwizard offer a wide range of personalised books staring your child, with prices starting at just £14.99 (for a soft back A4 book).

The range includes personalised birthday books (which can be personalised with your child’s name and age) as well as Peppa Pig and other character books for both boys and girls.

To order your book, you simply enter the personalised details on line via their website. Details required vary by book selected but include details such as full name, age, as well as hairstyle, skin tone and eye colour for the illustrations.

An optional personalised message can be added to mark the gift and capture those special memories.

Penwizard offer fast turnaround times, and books are dispatched within three days.

Our Experience

We decided to order a personalised “Peppa goes to Erin’s Birthday Party” book ready for Erin’s first birthday. In this story, Erin would help Mr Zebra deliver all the invitations to her birthday party and then celebrate with Peppa and her friends. The front cover of the book even includes her age on her very own party balloon!

Although still small, Erin appears to already be a big fan of Peppa and her family, so I was confident that she would love seeing these characters on the pages in a few months time.

The process for ordering our book was really simple.

We simply had to type in our daughters full name, the birthday she would be celebrating (e.g. 1, 2, 3 etc), and then choose the hairstyle and colour, skin tone and eye colour so that the pictures of “Erin” would be personalised throughout the book. Picking what our 1 year old daughters hair might look like was tricky lol, so we went for a girly ponytail, although in reality we will be lucky if she has that much hair!!

We then added a personalised message in the front of the book from Mummy and Daddy, as we thought this would be a nice touch when she looks back at it when she is old enough to read the words for herself.

The book arrived just 2 days later, which was a super fast delivery time, and it looked lovely and of a very high quality.

A4 in size, and with a gloss front cover, the book features 24 pages, making it just the right length for a bedtime story.

Erin’s name features on almost every page, and the story is a pleasant and enchanting tale that children will love.

Overall we loved the book and felt it would be a perfect keepsake for our daughter as she grows up!

Pros:

• Characters your children will love, and recognise from childrens TV programmes.
• High quality print and well bound pages.
• Large size perfect for children of all ages.
• Ability to personalise the illustrations as well as the words, meaning you can make the child look as much like your own son / daughter as possible.
• Suitable for both boys and girls, as colours and images can be chosen accordingly.
• Ability to add a personalised message for recipient.
• Good value for money at £14.99 RRP.
• Ultra fast delivery and turnaround times.

Cons:

• Would have been nice to have had a few other personalised features such as pets name, address, siblings names etc to make the story even more bespoke to your child.
• It would be great if Penwizard offered discounts when purchasing more than one book at a time, as if you were creating books for all your children, it could prove to be quite expensive.