A personalised book about a sleepover

A sleepover is an adventure on a small scale. A different bed, a different hum from the fridge, a different family's way of brushing teeth – and no parent in the next room. For many children it is both the most fun and the scariest thing they have done in ages. A book about a sleepover gives your child the chance to live through the evening in advance, as the one who manages it. It can also show the other side: having a friend to stay and being the one who shows how everything works at home.

The story can take place at a friend's house, with cousins or at granny's, or at home when someone else comes to stay. It can hold everything that belongs to an evening like that: tacos or pizza, a film on the sofa, brushing your teeth with the wrong toothpaste, a torch under the duvet. The evening has its own little negotiations too: who gets to sleep nearest the window, whose turn it is to pick the film, how another family says goodnight.

And it can let the night become a little more than usual – a noise on the stairs that needs investigating, a clue under the pillow, a star that seems to be moving back and forth.

Tell us who your child is staying with or who is coming, where they will sleep and what your child is taking along. A cuddly toy, a special pillow or a night light can have its own part in the story and show that it is perfectly fine to bring it. If your child has a bedtime routine, put that in too, so it travels with them to the new place. And tell us what is always the best bit at that particular friend's – the trampoline, the cat, the pancake breakfast.

If it is the dark that feels hardest, a book about being afraid of the dark could go nicely alongside.

Four- and five-year-olds sleeping away for the first time need a story where there is a grown-up to go to and where the morning arrives just as it should. Six- to nine-year-olds want suspense and giggles. For older children, the story can be about daring to say if you want to go home – and that this is a brave choice, not a failure.

Afterwards, talk about what your child can do if they wake in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep. If you usually ring home to say goodnight, that call can have a page in the book too.

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