A personalised book about New Year

New Year is a celebration about time, and time is something children are trying to understand. What is a year? Why does the number change in the middle of the night? How long are ten seconds when everyone counts down together? New Year's Eve gives a child a rare chance to be awake in the dark, watch the sky fill with colour and make a promise. A book about New Year turns the wait for midnight into an adventure and lets your child look back on the year that's gone, with their own memories in the story.

A New Year book can follow the evening hour by hour: the food, the games, the tiredness that comes and goes, the countdown and the sky lighting up. It can also turn time itself into an adventure – a clock that stops and lets your child put things right before the year ends, a journey through the twelve months, a rocket that carries your child up among the stars. New Year's Eve is also a night when children get to do things they normally can't: eat late, dress up, stay awake with the grown-ups. That feeling of being big for one night can carry the whole story.

For children who are just starting to understand the hands on a clock, there's also learning to tell the time.

Let the book become a little chronicle of the year. Write in what has happened to your child over the past twelve months: a move, a wobbly tooth that came out, a new baby brother or sister, a trip, a new friend. The story can let your child meet those memories again on the way to midnight.

Write in how you celebrate, too – at home, with friends, with or without fireworks – and whether a family pet needs comforting when the bangs start. If the bangs are hard for your child, the book can show a New Year of sparklers, lanterns and music instead. And anyone who fell asleep before midnight last year can stay awake in the book.

A New Year's resolution doesn't have to be big. For the youngest, lights, sounds and a simple Happy New Year on the last page are just right, and your child may well be asleep long before the clock strikes. Pre-schoolers love the countdown. From six, your child can make a resolution of their own in the story, and older children can have an adventure where time itself is at stake.

Afterwards, show them on a map or a globe: when the clock strikes twelve here, the new year has already arrived in countries further east, while countries to the west are still waiting. Write down your child's resolution and read it out next New Year's Eve.

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