Back in September I took a deep breath and headed off to London for my first big blogging conference – BML17.
It was a really great experience for me; I learnt a lot and, possibly even more importantly, I met some really lovely people.
One of the people I got chatting to was Ed from a company called Librio who create personalised books for children. He talked about these books with so much excitement, it was contagious, and so when he offered to send me a book for each of my children to review I said yes straight away.
As soon as I opened the box I could see why Ed was so passionate about the books Librio make; they really are stunning.
It sounds a bit strange to say, but they feel really nice in your hands! So as soon as you pick them up you can tell they’re quality books that will stand the test of time.
One thing that really stood out to me with Librio’s books is the fact that you can really personalise the illustrations, so the child in the book actually looks quite similar to your child.
Here’s what Nerys and Rhys look like in their books.
Other than the fact that Rhys’ hair is a bit lighter in real life I think the likeness is really pretty good!
When you go to create your own book on the Librio website, you can choose the child’s gender, skin colour, eye colour, hair style and hair colour. So you really can create a character that looks as much like your child as possible which I think is such a nice touch.
Once you’ve made your choices to personalise the book with your child’s name and appearance you can see a preview of how the finished book will look. If you’re happy you can go ahead and place your order. It’s a really quick and easy process but the end result is such a thoughtful present that any child would absolutely love.
Coming back to the illustrations in the book, they are all just gorgeous, I really love the style they’ve gone for.
They’re vibrant and colourful, but have a sort of gentleness to them that I find really appealing.
The story itself is great too.
It’s called “The tree, the key and me” and it’s a great adventure story for little ones, about a magical forest that is losing all its colour thanks to a witch who keeps getting her spells wrong.
Your child gets to be the hero of the story and help bring the colour back and put everything right. I do really love this idea of your child being the hero of their own story, rather than always reading about other people saving the day!
This is part of the philosophy behind Librio. In fact there’s a great little poem on their website that tells the story of how the company came about, and one of the verses reads:
If your child looks at books on their shelves,
they see stories of dragons and elves.
Imagine the joy
of your girl, of your boy
if the hero is their little selves.
There seems to be a real passion behind what Librio do. It’s not just about making books, it’s so much more than that.
They’re committed to promoting a love of reading in all children, and so for every book they sell they give £1 to further literacy in local communities in the UK, Australia and Europe. They also plant a tree through Trees for the Future for every book they sell, which I think is such a lovely idea.
And the gorgeously tactile paper that the books are printed on? It’s 100% recycled FSC certified paper.
If you’re looking for a personalised present for a child in your life, I would highly recommend one of these books from Librio.
The story is great, the illustrations are beautiful and you can feel good buying from them knowing that you’ll be helping them to do a lot of good around the world!
You can find out more about Librio and keep up to date with their news in these places:
Website – www.librio.com/en
Facebook – facebook.com/librio
Twitter – twitter.com/librio_en
Disclaimer: we were sent our books for the purpose of this review, but all words and opinions are my own.