Toddlers, like most humans, develop obsessions. We’ve had Curious George, Chuggington, In The Night Garden and more recently, Peppa Pig. It’s not that we don’t embrace his obsessions, we do with some gusto; it’s just that his repeated and rather adorable requests to watch “the piggins” do become a little wearing. I’d much rather snuggle up with him and read a book than plonk him in front of the telly. But sometimes the telly wins.
I was asked by Penwizard if I wanted to create a personalised Peppa Pig book for him, my first thought was that if he was frolicking around on the pages of a Peppa Pig book he might let me turn the telly off. I was right.
Creating the book was easy. I went to the Penwizard website, selected which story we’d like, in this case “Peppa Pig and Benjamin Go Swimming”. You then choose from a selection of facial features to create a likeness of your child, throw in a few words of personalised text and away you go.
The book arrived quickly and was well packaged. It comes with a little letter to your child which has a picture of them and Peppa on the reverse for them to colour in. We thought that was a nice touch.
The book itself was soft back and A4 sized (though hard backs are available). It’s a colourful, beautiful book. The illustrations are simple and engaging, much like the cartoon series. The little cartoon Benjamin (my boy) was pretty accurate and he recognised himself immediately.
I loved that there was real attention to detail with the book, such as the personalised message from Mummy and Daddy. The story itself – Peppa and Benjamin Go Swimming was fun-packed and engaging, as I read it to him he listened carefully and pointed things out on the page. He enjoyed it so much he demanded I read it several times before he went to bed. It’s a real winner.
It’s a lovely book and a great way to encourage reading with your little one. It is a Ladybird book, a brand who I remember with great fondness from my childhood. The soft back book is just £14.99, I think it’d be a lovely present for any little one. They have a few characters to choose from too, like Noddy, Ben & Holly and Roary the Racing Car.
I can see this being a bedtime favourite and I’m sure that we’ll be ordering others from the series. He loved his bedtime adventure with Peppa and I did get to turn the telly off for a change.
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