A personalised book about dance

Children often dance before they can talk properly. They sway to music in the kitchen and spin until they fall over laughing. Dancing is all about the body, and a book about dance lets your child see their own movement caught on paper: arms flung wide, one foot in the air, hair flying. It suits the child who goes to dance classes as well as the one who'd rather dance alone in the living room. The book can also say something about feeling nervous before a show and discovering that you manage it anyway.

Perhaps the music stops halfway through the show and your child carries on dancing in the silence, until the audience starts clapping the beat. Perhaps Grandma teaches a dance to an old record, or it's your child who shows a hesitant friend a brand-new one. It could be a ring dance round the maypole at Midsummer, where your child leads the whole circle for the first time. Or an animal in the woods that has never danced and wants to learn how.

The pictures can capture what is hard to see in real life: fabric whirling round the legs, the beam of the spotlight, a leap that hangs perfectly still in the air.

Ballet, street dance, folk dance, a kitchen disco – the dance in the book can be the very one your child does. Tell us about the clothes they love dancing in, the song that always gets them moving and who usually sits and watches. A friend from the class can have a part. If your child has just had their first show, write in how it felt before and how it felt afterwards.

Dancing can be something the whole family does, too, like a riotous Friday dance to the same song every week. If you have a habit like that, it makes a lovely final scene.

The smallest child gets the rhythm in the language itself: sway, clap, stamp, spin. A four- or five-year-old likes a clear path leading up to a performance. For school-age children up to nine, a tricky step can become the challenge, with conversations between your child and a dance partner. And if you've chosen 10+, there's room for the nerves before an audition and the wait for your turn.

Read the book like a game of musical statues. Put some music on, and when the reader stops, nobody dances any more – everyone freezes in the same pose as the child in the picture. You can do it with every single page. Let your child choose the song, and make up a move of your own for each character in the book.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about dance 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.