Do you kids write and draw lots of stories? Would you love to make them into keepsake? If so, Tikatok.com is a website you will want to try out. With Tikatok, you are able to take your kids stories and drawings and make them into either hard cover or soft cover books! They even have title pages and dedication pages! You can keep them yourself or give them away as gifts! Registration on the site is free, and you don’t get charged until you order your book. You can even buy gift certificates for the author or artist in your life.

It is pretty easy to set up your book too.  Kids can definitely do it themselves.  As for the illustrations, you can either scan them and upload them yourself, or mail them in for them to to do.  If they don’t know what to make their book about, there are suggestions they can use.  You just put in what you like, and it will give you several different ways you can talk about that topic.  Your kids truly do have control of every aspect of their book.

If you’d like a unique original gift for someone, this is definitely it! Kids like nothing more than to express their creative side, and this allows them to do so and show everyone.

I See Me! are some the best personalized books out there on the market.  I was able to look at a couple of samples, and I am impressed.  My kids love the sample books, so I am seriously considering getting them their own.  There have several different books to pick from, but I am just going to review the two that I received.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the illustrations in this book.  They are some of the most detailed I have seen in a kids book ever.  My Very Own Name has each page spelling out your child’s name. They also have a cute saying to go with it.  Being that we are working on letter sounds and spelling with Madison, this is something very helpful to us.  When you get to the end of the book, your child’s name will be completely spelled out (first and last).  There also is an animal encyclopedia.  It tells you about each animal in the book.  For example, an elephant can weigh up to 13,000 lbs and a daddy emus sit on the eggs to keep them warm! This book also includes your child’s birthday and a dedication from the sender. This is definitely for both boys and girls from 0 – 8 years old.

My Very Own Fairy Tale is for girls ages 0 – 12 years old. This book has fairies spelling your little girls first and last name in rhyme.  The illustrations in this book too are awesome.  You just don’t see this in kids books.  At the end of this book, there is “The Fairy Patch”.  It is a listing of all the fairies in the book.  Each fairy is named after a plant, so they is also a little bit about each plant.  For example, we learned that growers harvest cranberries by flooding their fields with water and iris is the Greek word for rainbow.  This too has a personal dedication in it from the sender.

Both of these books are a hit in my house.  This is definitely a great gift for not only your children, but for that kid in your life that seems to have everything.  These books have already gotten hours of use at  my house.

Do you remember all those classic books we had as a kid?  Well, The Kids Bookstore has taken these loved books and made them even better!  How do you ask?  They take the book of your choice (and they have a ton to pick from and most of the classics that I remember.  There is even The Night Before Christmas.) and make it into a hardcover book.  They then take the first page of the book (even before the title page) and put a printed dedication.  This includes the child’s name, a meaningful blurb that you write to the child, and a photo that you give them.  If you are lucky (depending on the book), this dedication may even show up on the inner back of the hardcover.  This definitely gives the book a personal touch.  If you have more than one child, this should also help you to keep track of whose book it really is.

For the kid who has everything, a personalized book is something they most likely don’t have.  I know my daughter would love to see her picture in a book.  The books offered cover a wide range of ages — from 2 to 9.  You can find everything from the classics like Wind In The Willows and Alice in Wonderland to newer titles like Pinkalicious.  Reading is a gift we must pass onto our children, and this is a great way to pass that on.