A personalised book about ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt has everything that makes a child's eyes go wide: pyramids, mummies, gold and a written language made of pictures. At the same time it was a real place with a real history, which makes travelling there in a book all the more exciting. Your child can walk along the Nile, see how people lived thousands of years ago and solve a puzzle written in hieroglyphs. It raises questions – how did they build the pyramids, why did they make mummies? – and the book becomes the start of conversations that can go on for a long time.

In a book about ancient Egypt your child can follow a scribe and learn a few hieroglyphs, sail on the Nile in a boat made of papyrus reeds or lend a hand as the workers haul blocks of stone towards a pyramid. Perhaps a temple cat has gone missing, or Pharaoh needs someone to find the way through a maze of passages. The adventure itself is made up, while papyrus, mummies, scarabs and pyramids all belong to that time. Your child can also join a festival when the river rises, or help a farmer save the harvest from a swarm of locusts.

If your child has seen a mummy in a museum, or has a book about pyramids that gets read over and over, tell us about it. A love of animals can become a cat, an ibis or a crocodile in the Nile. A brother or sister can come along as a trainee scribe, and a grandparent as the wise priest or priestess who knows where the treasure is hidden.

For younger children it's shapes and animals that carry the story: triangles of stone, crocodiles, a big yellow sun. Pre-schoolers love sailing down the river to a pyramid and home again. Six-year-olds can be given a real hieroglyph puzzle, and ten-year-olds enjoy finding out more about how people lived, what they ate and what they believed in.

Almost everything in ancient Egypt depended on the Nile. Every year the river rose and flooded, and when the water drew back it left a layer of rich soil where farmers could grow their crops. The great pyramids at Giza were built as tombs for pharaohs more than 4,500 years ago. Invent your own picture symbols and write your child's name with them, one symbol for each sound – some hieroglyphs worked exactly like that. The Egyptians held cats in high regard, and cats often appear in their art.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about ancient Egypt 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 hardback book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the audiobook or the colouring 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.