A personalized book about sport

Sport gives children something concrete to aim for: a goal, a time, a jump that gets a little longer every week. It's about winning, but more often about training, missing, trying again and belonging to a team. A book about sport can show your child in their own kit with their own number, in the sport they actually play or dream of playing. It can also be about losing and still having had fun, which is harder to say than to show.

The book can be about any sport at all: netball, swimming, riding, gymnastics, athletics, rugby, cricket or climbing. Your child might lose a match but win a new friend on the other team. They might practise a jump that doesn't work, and doesn't work the next time either, and then one Tuesday it does. Your child can look after a new teammate who doesn't know the rules yet, or race the wind on a bike along a gravel track and win by a whisker.

A sports book doesn't need a trophy on the last page. It's often the moments between matches that say the most: the coach trip to the tournament, the chips afterwards, the team singing in the showers.

Describe your child's real sport and the team colours, the number on the shirt and what the coach always says. Write in a match or tournament you remember, a time your child scored or missed and had to try again. Brothers and sisters cheering from the stands and a parent with a flask in the rain belong here too. If your child doesn't play a sport yet but talks about one constantly, the book can be a first step towards it. Think, too, about what your child finds hardest – losing, waiting on the bench, everyone watching – and write it in. The book can take it seriously without making it bigger than it is.

Movement and sound go a long way for the littlest ones: kick, bounce, run, hooray. A five-year-old enjoys a match with a clear start and a clear finish. Six- to nine-year-olds get a choice to make, like the goalkeeper question, and teammates who talk to each other. A twelve-year-old can have a deciding moment with real suspense and a few doubts along the way.

Play the match from the book in the garden afterwards. Talk about rules you know: in football only the goalkeeper may handle the ball, and only inside their own penalty area – apart from throw-ins, of course. If you'd like more last-minute finishes, have a look at the idea The Match Decided at the End.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about sport is written for your very own child, and the thirteen pictures and the cover are drawn from the photo in the style you choose. Brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or the pet can come along, up to five characters. If you would like to include something that has happened lately, a trip or a lost tooth, just write it and it is woven in.

The eBook is ready a few minutes after payment. Read it, change the text and ask for new pictures until you are happy. Then order it as an A4 hardcover book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the audiobook or the coloring pages. Start creating the book or read more about the prices. Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.